You Know You Go to Hampshire When...

as you try to describe your friends and adventures at school to people back home, the latter come to think that those friends are make-believe and Hampshire can’t possibly be a real place.

the regular attire of the dean of one of the schools is band t-shirts and jeans.

you describe how Hampshire works to outsiders and they ask “but if you don’t have grades or a major how does grad school work?” and you feel a sense of victory telling them about how Hampshire students usually get into their top choice for graduate school and that Hampshire is one of the top undergraduate institutions for people who go on to get Ph.D.s.

the woods are full of abstract art projects.

a fellow student says that most of the people on their hall are completely straight, and you think “Really? That’s weird.”

answering the question “what are you doing at school?” requires a half-hour lecture.

you notice your classmates on footage of Occupy Wall Street.

you realize that most of the things it occurs to you to publish on You Know You Go to Hampshire When… involve gender perceptions…even though you’ve never actually studied anything having to do with gender theory.

you consider this your PE.

summer break becomes something you dread.