One of my preferred travel destinations is Washington, DC. For many years, my husband and I enjoyed a family tradition of spending Columbus Day Weekend in the national capital. Each trip was unique. Some of our favorite sights in DC include the National Zoo, the Phillips Collection museum, the National Mall Carousel and Ford’s Theatre. On our last trip to Washington in 2021, we spent a delightful afternoon exploring the Georgetown neighborhood and college campus. My photos from that day have inspired the photo essay below.

Last year at this time, Sasha was sitting on the lumpy couch in her high school Guidance Counselor’s office. While she waited for Ms. Burns to get off the phone, she flipped through an outdated issue of Campus Life magazine. The glossy pages were filled with photos of smiling students lounging on sunny lawns, laughing in Harry Potteresque dining halls, or listening attentively in high-tech classrooms. She and Ms. B were meeting to finalize Sasha’s college list with Georgetown University right at the top.

Now, here she was on her first Saturday as a college girl, walking across the Georgetown campus. So far, her campus life was nothing like the one enjoyed by the students in the magazine.  Instead of bonding with her roommate, Jessica, and making friends with the girls in her dorm, Sasha was spending most of her free time alone. 

Jessica was nice enough. They just had nothing in common with each other. Jessica was a soccer player and a physical therapy major. When she wasn’t in class, she was either on the soccer pitch, in the gym or in the common room with her PT study group. Most of the other girls on her floor were sporty like Jessica. Somehow, dreamy Sasha who majored in art history had ended up in a jock dorm.

This morning, Sasha had gotten up early, determined to go out and find her people. She would start by visiting the De La Cruz Gallery. She remembered the guide pointing out the art gallery on her campus tour last fall. Maybe she could apply for a work study job or at least a volunteer position there.

Sasha strolled along admiring the spires and arches that adorned the college buildings around her. The campus was quiet. The early morning sun shone down on the grassy quad in front of the library. A woman and her poodle were playing a game of fetch across the lawn. The clock atop the Gothic tower of Healy Hall struck the hour, the clear tones of the bells blending with the dog’s excited barking.

As Sasha wandered past the college’s honorary statue of Jan Karski (another highlight of her college tour), she noticed a girl sitting on the bench beside the bronze figure of the chess playing government and international affairs professor. She was dressed in a calf-length crinkle skirt topped with an over-sized college hoodie. An open sketch pad lay in the grass at her feet. She held her cell phone at an odd angle out in front of her.

“Do you want me to take your picture for you?” Sasha called out.

The girl lowered the phone and smiled at Sasha. “That would be great, yeah. I want to send this photo to my dad. This statue is of one of his professors, who was also a World War II resistance fighter.”

“That’s cool,” Sasha said, accepting the phone and snapping a few shots of the girl. “My name is Sasha, by the way,” she added. “I’m a freshman.”

“Me too. I’m Beatrice.” The girl took her phone from Sasha’s outstretched hand and nodded her head as she swiped through the new photos. “Thanks.”

Sasha started to walk away, but then turned back. “Hey, Beatrice. I’m going over to the art gallery, do you want to come with?”

Beatrice scooped up her sketch pad and pocketed her cell phone. “Sure, why not.”

The two girls chatted companionably as they walked together across the quad, and Sasha’s heart lifted with the hope that her real campus life was about to begin.