Two Letters
Couple of quick hits for you this Friday: first up, a message went out to the Class of 2020 and their parents/families announcing the date for their Commencement celebration. That celebration will take place the weekend of September 17-19. We will have more details over the summer, but for now P’20 families should mark their calendars and save the date.
Second, our incoming ’25 students got a message last night in error about RoomSync, which is an application we have partnered with for use by our current (i.e., ’21-’24) students to help them find potential roommates. We sent the ’25s a follow up message to clarify. For the P’25s in the Daily Deacdom, know that your Deacs will be paired with roommates by the Office of Residence Life and Housing based on their responses to the Housing Application, which opens at 10 a.m. on Monday, May 3. For more information about incoming student housing, please visit go.wfu.edu/f101housing.
That reminds me, our newstudents.wfu.edu website is in the final stages of editing, and on Monday morning we will roll off the Class of 2024’s info and relaunch the site with all the info for the Class of 2025 (important note that the dates on the site right now are from LAST year). We also want to state upfront that with all things this year, use a pencil, not a pen, to make plans. As we move through the next few months, you may see changes to dates, events, etc. due to the University’s response to COVID-19. We ask all families to please remain flexible and be aware of the possibility that we will adjust plans as needed. You should visit the New Students website regularly for the most updated information throughout the summer.
Students received their Your Corona Chronicle yesterday. In it is a reminder that starting tomorrow, the campus gates will be open in their pre-COVID hours (6 am to 10 pm), so you will not need your Deac to submit a Family Access Form if you want to drive onto campus between those hours.
We’ll close the week out with two letters that I hope you’ll enjoy. The first contains some advice from a Double Deac who is a faculty member at another school, and the second is a feel-good letter from a kindergartener.
First, the advice. It’s about perfectionism, which is something with which many a Wake student struggles. This was shared on social media by [full disclosure] one of my dearest friends and former roommate, who has given me permission to share it here. Her message is solid. She wrote:
I sent a version of this email to a student today. It’s been a VERY LONG semester. I think somehow I was writing this to myself. And a lot of other people. Here goes:
“Stop trying to be flawless and perfect in your work. I have been teaching at the college level for a very long time, and it is rare that I ever find a student who has submitted flawless work from tip to tail. And that is good. If we strive for perfection in every part of our work, we will drive ourselves batty. Yes, we want to do our best. But our ‘best’ work does not mean ‘flawless’ or ‘perfect.’ In fact, it is in the errors that we grow.
If you are afraid of flaws and errors, you are going to be very unlikely to find spaces to learn and grow. I teach developmental psychology, which is all about change. Most of the changes I teach about have been borne out of flawed, incomplete, or evolving systems: children start out egocentric but grow to rethink their egocentrism; they rethink how they describe themselves as they grow up; they reshape how they conceive of friendships, etc.
If you only focus on getting perfect work, you not only burn yourself out, you don’t offer yourself any grace in the flaws. And there is much to be learned there.” — Dr. Jennifer Slawinski Blessing (’92, MA ’94)
Now to the second letter. This wonderful note was sent to us by a kindergartener, Celeste, whose older sister will be starting at Wake this fall. Even though her sister hasn’t left yet, sweet Celeste wanted to make sure that everything is going to be OK for her. You can click on the picture to enlarge, or as translated by one of her parents, the note reads:
Hi Wake Forest, let Grace have a great college please and thank you. Love her sister, Celeste
I’m sure it’s just the pollen that is making my eyes water. Really 🙂
Thanks to this ’25 family for giving me permission to share her lovely letter. I can tell you it made my day to receive it.
If you haven’t written a letter to your Deac in a while, think about writing one this weekend. Letter writing is a lost art, and seeing your mom, dad, grandparent, or loved one’s handwriting on a piece of paper – and hearing some words of wisdom from someone older, wiser, loving, and empathetic – can do wonders for your Deac’s spirits, particularly as finals approach.
Wishing a great weekend to all in the Daily Deacdom!