As our days get slowly sunnier in Northfield, we are excited to see faces new and old on our screens, in our classrooms in the Weitz, and someday soon, in the hallways of Laird. Most excitingly, spring brings new faces to us via one of our favorite moments in the year: major declaration! This spring, nineteen bright students from the Class of 2023 have decided to continue exploring literature in our Carleton community and declared English as a field of study, and we are so excited to have them!
What follows is a series of interviews from some of the newly declared majors exploring their likes, dislikes, and astrological autonomy. Although they only answered four questions each, they reassure us that Second Laird, once it returns, will be receiving an exciting cohort of students; ready to read, think, and challenge our interpretive communities! While many of these faces are familiar, The Miscellany is excited to get to know them better through the virtual declaration party held Monday, April 26 and in-person sometime soon (as tradition goes, maybe someday we’ll see you on an actual cake as well).
Sophie Perfetto
Where are you from?
Nashville, TN
What’s your sign?
Scorpio
Who’s your least favorite protagonist?
Nick Carraway
What book would you want to be buried with?
The Graveyard Book
What’s something you wish you’d written?
The Yellow Wallpaper
Indigo Bistrup-Peterson
Where are you from?
Minnesota
What’s your sign?
Capricorn
Who’s your least favorite protagonist?
Bella Swan from the Twilight series. No explanation needed.
What book would you want to be buried with?
The entire Percy Jackson universe by Rick Riordan (Yes, all 22 novels. They were my childhood).
What’s something you wish you’d written?
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, everything about it is amazing.
Diana Kachman
Where are you from?
Federal Way, Washington but I’m Peruvian-American.
What’s your sign?
Aries.
Who’s your least favorite protagonist?
Elizabeth Bennet (I know, very controversial).
What’s something you wish you’d written?
I wish that I could have written The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende because I love magical realism and the novel is very dear to my heart.
Hannah Sheridan
Where are you from?
Los Altos, California
What’s your sign?
Cancer
Who’s your least favorite protagonist?
Demetrius from A Midsusmmer Night’s Dream
What book would you want to be buried with?
Notes from Underground by Dostoevsky 😉
What’s something you wish you’d written?
Wild Geese by Mary Oliver
Kota Shibuik
Where are you from?
Department of Physics and Astronomy
What’s your sign?
TAVRVS
Who’s your least favorite protagonist?
Tonio Kröger (because he chickens out of telling Hans that he loves him. Seize the day, Tonio).
What book would you want to be buried with?
I’d rather be cremated (so any book that burns well)
What’s something you wish you’d written?
a good hand
Julia Luljak
Where are you from?
Baltimore, MD
What’s your sign?
Libra
Who’s your least favorite protagonist?
Elinor Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility
What book would you want to be buried with?
A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
What’s something you wish you’d written?
My epitaph (i suppose i still can!)
Andriana Taratsas
Where are you from?
Richmond, VA
What’s your sign?
Aries
Who’s your least favorite protagonist?
Sal Paradise, ugh! (Sorry, ENGL 215).
What book would you want to be buried with?
The Time Traveler’s Wife. The whole time/timeless theme might make me feel better about being dead.
What’s something you wish you’d written?
I don’t have a great answer to this. But I recently read Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Hema and Kaushik,” and I wish I could write something that makes people feel like that story made me feel.
Becca Helmstetter
Where are you from?
Mequon, WI
What’s your sign?
Taurus
Who’s your least favorite protagonist?
I’m going to say Sal Paradise from On the Road. Gotta love a self-insert, though.
What book would you want to be buried with?
Has to be Hamlet. It would keep me entertained in the afterlife, since there’s always something new to think about each time you read it. Plus, ~death vibes~.
We can’t wait to learn and celebrate with you soon, new students! If you’re just joinging us from the Class of 2023 and would like to add your responses to this story, reach out to steinl2@carleton.edu.