Tag: wpi

Mahi Gold at WPI’s Alumni Weekend

On By careofmonIn Fashion, Lifestyle3 Comments

This past weekend I attended my 10 year reunion at WPI….that’s right, I graduated college in 2006!! It made me feel really old haha. My husband, Jon, was also the class of ’06 so he came with and we had an awesome day catching up with people. We met up with a group of friends at the Boynton restaurant in Worcester to start our day, a place that we all spent much time at in college. From there we headed up the hill to campus.

WPI is beautiful. Nestled in a concentrated area in Worcester, it has the classic New England college look. I remember going to check it out in high school and just instantly falling in love with the campus. My tour guide, Nicole, was awesome and would later become my sorority sister! I got in to WPI early my senior year, connected with the crew coach, the money all worked out and just like that, I had chosen my home for the next four years.

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This is the Earle Bridge, a walking bridge over Institute Road. Freshman year during orientation, all new students walk over this bridge to symbolize their journey beginning. On graduation day, all graduates walk back over the bridge to symbolize the end of their time at WPI. Tearin up just a little, don’t mind me guys.

My husband was in the Skull society, so we hung out in the Skull tomb for a bit. Then we went to see our respective Greek houses- he was an Alpha Chi Rho, and I was a Phi Sigma Sigma. Finally we went to the Higgins House gardens (also seen here), arguably my favorite spot on campus. The Higgins lawn was my quiet spot to go with a blanket and read in college.

It was a really beautiful day Saturday, so I went with one of my Mahi Gold dresses and my navy/white Palm Beach Sandals with my white KJP bracelet. I have three dresses from Mahi Gold on the cape, and they are definitely some of my faves. They are all made from high quality cotton with a little stretch, thick enough to be not see through. The prints are all really fun and nautical.

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Not loving my hair in these pics haha, I put it in a braid wet so it has that sorta wavy look to it, ohhhh well 🙂 

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Dress // Sandals // Bracelet

Our little class reception was in the new rec/athletics building on campus which has a rowing room!! We used to have to get bused over to Holy Cross to use their tanks, but now WPI has a state of the art awesome room with tanks and ergs. We couldn’t get into the room but we did mess around on some ergs out in the hall for old time’s sake haha.

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After our little class reception, they had smores and a reception out on the quad. Its funny because Jon and I were good friends in college and have a lot of memories together from crew and social stuff on campus, but we didn’t date until after college. Being together on campus and whenever we go to crew events, its special because its something that we truly share. Actually in my group of ten best gal pals from WPI, six of us are married to WPI grads! So many WPI couples!

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It was so nice to be back on campus, we all had such a great four years at WPI, so many amazing memories. I have nothin but love for my alma mater. How was everyone else’s weekend!?

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Higgins House & Gardens at WPI

On By careofmonIn LifestyleLeave a comment

Last week I got to go back to my alma mater to chaperone my students at the Worcester Regional Science & Engineering Fair. The fair was in the campus center, so during my lunch, I took a couple minutes to admire Higgins House. Aldus C. Higgins was the owner of the home, and his father Milton Higgins was the founder of Norton Company in Worcester. The house was built in 1921 by Grosvenor Atterbury. The tudor style three story home was donated to WPI in 1971 after the passing of Aldus, and the home was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. I have so many great memories of events at Higgins House. I was thinking about it, and honestly I am shocked that none of my friends ended up getting married there. I snapped some photos of the garden side of the house. Its so beautiful, makes you feel like you have stepped through some sort of time warp to an old English countryside home and garden.

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Love the flowers just starting to grow in their beds 🙂
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That little balcony, so cute. I also love the brick pattern and that chimney!
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Those chimneys…

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Joining of the stone and brick sections of the house
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This little door is where you enter the Higgins gardens and lawn from the rest of campus. 

I will be back at WPI in June, so I will head back to snap some pics with the beautiful flowers and vines that grow in the gardens. I didn’t walk around to the other side of the house, but this picture from the WPI website shows the beautiful stone tower on the other side.

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I loved my four years at WPI. My fiancé was my friend, teammate, and co-captain at WPI, and I still have many girlfriends from WPI. A lot of us will be together for my wedding in a few short weeks. I was so proud of my students at the science fair, and getting to walk around my old stomping grounds a little was just icing on the cake!

Where did/do you go to college? Does your campus have a big old beautiful building for events that you just want to move into? 🙂

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Engagement Photo Shoot

On By careofmonIn Lifestyle6 Comments

Today, I have the day off for Veteran’s Day. My father is a veteran of the Vietnam War, both of my grandfather’s were in WWII…and on my father’s side, we have fought in every conflict on American soil and overseas for America. My father’s family has been here since 1635 though, so thats pretty common in families that have been kicking around America that long. My dad is now the treasurer for his 82nd Airborne Association club down in FL, and my mom is pretty active in the Daughters of the American Revolution too, so they were both busy today. My dad has been in a golf tournament this week that ended today, and my mom served lunch at a Veteran’s Day assembly. I’m sure wherever I end up settling down with a family will be where I join the DAR. I feel very proud of my family’s military heritage.

It’s been raining here in Massachusetts today, so I have been catching up on laundry, reading (working on Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll), food shopping….I know, so glamorous. The peace and quiet of today has given me a chance to look over my fiancé, Jon, and I’s photos from this past weekend. Our photographer for our wedding offers a complementary photo shoot beforehand. I don’t really think of it as an engagement shoot so much because we have been engaged since August, but I guess thats the best thing to call it!

I was thinking about wearing this adorable gray J. Crew factory fair isle sweater, but when I put it on over my white button down, it just looked boxy!! I made a game time decision to wear my navy Woolover cashmere/cotton blend sweater instead. I wore a very simple outfit, but it was very “me” I think. Jon wore one of his many plaid flannel shirts; pretty much his uniform in the colder months, he’s too cute. The location was dog friendly, which was awesome because it meant Mizpah, our dalmatian, got to be a part of the photos. It was a cold and windy day, but I think our photographer did a great job getting some nice shots!

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These photos brightened my day. I love the one of us in our crew jackets from behind. Jon and I began as friends & teammates at WPI so many years ago. I could have never predicted that we would be here, so happy and getting married in the spring. Life is funny.

Hope you all had a peaceful Veteran’s Day and had a moment to just appreciate the sacrifices service men, women, animals, and their families have made to keep Americans safe.

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Alumni Crew Race!

On By careofmonIn Lifestyle2 Comments

I went to Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester MA and was a member of the women’s crew team for all 4 years. We had a fall and a spring season, and it was the best thing I did in college. I started rowing the summer after my junior year of high school during a week long camp. Up until then, I had been playing tennis and competitively Irish Step Dancing annnnnnd my knees had just had it. I have patella femoral syndrome. Its really common in women who sorta grew really fast causing their hip/knee angle to be off. Basically my kneecap tracks diagonally, outside to inside, so there can be swelling & pain. My orthopedic dr did crew and actually suggested I do it in order to strengthen my quads. That summer, I fell in love with rowing at a camp at Northeastern University. Senior year I drove myself to CRI on the Charles 3 days a week after school to row with a program. College crew wasn’t something I randomly found at the activities fair during orientation, it was something that I looked forward to my entire senior year.

My senior year, I was captain of the crew team with my best friend. She was in my sorority, we studied abroad in Thailand our junior year together, and spent soooo many hours together for crew, we practically shared a brain. She passed away in 2008 from a heart problem. She just died in her sleep, very peacefully. My world was rocked, I was devastated. Those first two years out of college, we went to races together, supporting our team as alumni. We raced in the alumni race, hung out after for the cookout and then headed to campus for the rest of the homecoming activities.

After she died though, I couldn’t bring myself to do it anymore. The loss of her was so pronounced at crew activities. When we fundraised enough money to buy a boat and name it after her, I went to the homecoming race as a spectator and went in to the dark boathouse to visit her boat like a grave. This year though, I got dragged into the alumni race. I didn’t even have clothes, but people had spandex and a tshirt for me to borrow. It was so fun. I still cried when my former coach along with my best friend’s family announced the amazing endowment in her name that states there will always be a boat named after her for WPI crew. Grief is a strange thing. It sharpens and fades, like changing the focus of a photo from the foreground to the background. I am going to watch some of my fellow alums race at the Head of the Charles this year. It has taken me a long time, but my feelings of loss and sadness are starting to fall to the background and I am able to love crew again.

Here are some pictures from the race. It was an awesome morning 🙂

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