Editorial Board
3/2/58
Dear Mom & Dad,
Time has been going so fast. Here we are - halfway to spring vacation - and you haven't had a decent letter from me in quite a while.
Although you'll find it hard to believe, I haven't been as burdened with work as I was first semester. Doesn't seem possible that changing one course could make so much difference - American History in place of 18th cent. lit which was, not a reading course but a wading course!
Things actually haven't been too red hot around here the last couple of weeks but are steadily improving. Did I ever mention the great amount of petty thievery that went on in S. Mandelle for about a month & a half? Probably not, because I, myself, wasn't aware how serious the problem had become. Anyway, I discovered two weeks ago that one of my good friends was, almost without a doubt, responsible. I realized before that she's an emotionally disturbed girl and, for this reason had been especially friendly - perhaps one of her 3 closest friends - although no one really knows her well. You can imagine what a shock this was to me! I was sick about it. The girl is really ill and yet nothing can be done yet. The evidence is all circumstantial [even though it is overwhelmingly against her] and without proof no one can outwardly recognize the problem and thus help her. I was kept in ignorance by tacit agreement among the people who knew - for my sake - and discovered the situation by accident. The important thing, of course, is to keep her from knowing that her friends suspect her. She needs friends whom she can trust and love more than anything in the world. The tough part for me has been acting natural - as if things were just as they have always been. This becomes easier as time goes on but it was really hell at first. I've never felt such frustration as in the past two weeks - feeling so much pity for this poor kid and wanting so to help her somehow - to reach out to her - and yet having to keep silence and do nothing. The admiration which she has for me only makes things worse - I feel I'm failing her when she needs me most.
I've been quite unhappy about the way the college has handled this - She was called into the Dean's office & questioned generally, to which she answered with a fantastic bunch [?] of lies. Preposterous lies in which she became hopelessly confused. She has told senseless falsehoods to others of her friends and, without doubt, to me although I've tried to ignore the possibility. Still the Deans & the college psychiatrist say we must just wait - wait for her to make a slip & catch herself. I feel that her parents should be informed of the whole situation - it would be a bitter blow to them, I think - and let them withdraw her or do whatever they saw fit to do.
Well - this is the situation now - and I'm becoming used to acting a part although it's mighty uncomfortable. The saving grace for me was the weekend in the Adirondacks - last weekend. I managed to forget all about college & its problems for 2 whole days. I came back feeling much more optimistic than I ever thought I could feel about the whole business.
By the way - Charlie, Don & I, along with some other people, we haven't yet decided who - are planning to spend six days at the beginning of spring vacation at Katahdin in Maine. Our vacation is March 27 - April 8. Plans run thus - leave Boston March 28th for Maine, pack in the 29th, climb the 30th & 31st, out on April 1 & drive back the 2nd. This would get me home probably late on the 2nd & give me until the 8th in Syracuse. I hope there are no serious objections?
Been working on plans for next year a bit & have been in communication with several private schools along the east coast - Providence, N.Y. City, and 3 around Washington & Virginia. I've also written to tons of schools on the west coast - California, Oregon, Washington, also Colorado but have heard nothing yet. I'll probably go to Providence some day next week for interview & to see the school and maybe spend a weekend in New York if people from the southern schools will come up to meet me. One headmistress wanted me to come to Baltimore for an interview, paying half my expenses but this is hardly feasible. I'm certainly in no hurry to decide, even if they do offer me a job - any of them - and will wait & weigh all of the possibilities. The west would be a nice change, I'm sure.
Skiing fell through this weekend - maybe next if possible. Saw Charlie last weekend & probably not again until the Mt. Katahdin trip. It's just as well - no sense in pushing anything.
Oh - would you send up our copy of Galsworthy's Forsythe Saga as soon as you can? Copies here cost $3.50!
Boy, this is a letter. But I owed it to you.
Love,
Liz