After spending hours in the Stanford House listening to enlightening lectures, I spent my afternoons exploring Worcester College, taking lazy-lakeside walks and people-watching on the Nuffield Lawn. I used this time as a chance to learn more about my surroundings. I researched the school’s history and fantasized about how I would have experienced this setting through the perspective of different people in both the past and the future. I imagined what it would have been like to be the Provost, sometime before the 1900s, who grazed his cattle on the side of the sports field, which was once a water meadow. I pretended I was part of the first female class of 41 students who entered the College in 1979. As a champion of co-education and gender equality, I confidently strutted through the front entrance and took my seat in a classroom’s first row. These were the things I fantasized about, for it made me appreciate the historic academic environment even more.
While I enjoyed living in the past in my daydreams, I found equal excitement in experiencing the forward-looking aspects of the institution. The Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre, named after the son of the Sultan of Perak in Malaysia, an alumnus of Worcester College, is flooded with sunlight and features state-of-the-art modern technology. The architecture bears a bold contrast to the Chapel, which was last renovated in 1864. However, the Shah Centre’s lighting is timeless. The building’s natural illumination transports me to a futuristic space, where I welcome change to a place grounded in tradition. I picture myself as a graduate student studying English and attending lectures in the Centre’s auditorium. I envision myself exploring the archives in the soon-to-be-constructed library and study center, eager to discover new knowledge and broaden my worldview.
In these moments, where I was enchanted by Worcester’s twenty-six acres of natural beauty and embodying some of the school’s different personas, I fell in love with not only the landscape but the history, culture and community of the College. I felt that I belonged, regardless of the role I assumed.
Check out Worcester College — captured through my camera lens on post-lecture walks and sit-spots. Make sure to click for fullscreen viewing.