Nora Welsh

COL ’16
Age: 20
Hometown: Altadena, Calif.
Major: Psychology

Do you feel obliged to be busy at Georgetown?
I feel obliged to be busy because of myself. I get really antsy if I’m not doing something. I’ve always been busy but I’ve never felt any pressure to be. I feel like I can sit in and watch three hours of “Fringe” and no one is going to really care. But I need to be doing things.

What do you do on campus?
I used to be on the varsity crew team and now I play rugby. I did Rangila, I am on Awaaz, the South Asian comedy troupe – we do the weird skit in the middle of Rangila that’s always really awkward. I’m part of Hoya Blue, I tutor for Strive, I do lights for “She Loves Me” through Mask and Bauble, I’m an NSO leader and I work in the MSB Tech Center.

Can you comment on the party culture at Georgetown?
Apparently it’s very different than other colleges. I went to UCLA over the summer and people at parties didn’t know everyone who was at the party and I was like, “This is really weird.” I don’t go somewhere unless I know more than half of the people there. Thank god freshman year is over. I like it better now than going to a crazy rager where you don’t know anybody.

What do you like most about Georgetown?
I love the competitiveness of it. It’s not like we’re trying to cut each other’s throats but we hold each other to a higher standard, which is nice. No one is being lazy. But at the same time no one is trying to sabotage each other; it’s a constructive environment.

What do you hope Georgetown will help you accomplish, apart from securing a career?
It’ll help me have a broader outlook on life. I didn’t realize that I came from a very sheltered childhood or upbringing where I wasn’t subjected to different and diverse people. It was a monoculture where I came from. Here you can argue it’s a monoculture but then you’re just not looking in the right areas.

Do you feel you fit in at Georgetown?
I don’t know how you couldn’t fit in at Georgetown honestly. There’s a lot of different people here and I’m always one of those people who has different friend groups and who wouldn’t get along but I feel like I fit in here. There’s definitely other places I wouldn’t fit in, like at University of Chicago.

How did you pick Georgetown?
I wanted to get out of California. That was my one goal in life, which is mostly the opposite of everyone else. I wanted to experience something new and experience the East Coast. It was between here, the University of Chicago and Boston College. There was something about going to Georgetown and getting lost on the tour and accidentally finding myself in Dahlgren Chapel. That was really fun.

Where are you from? Compare and contrast it to Georgetown. Where are you more comfortable?
I’m from Altadena, Calif. Besides all the allergies that I now have, what they say about West Coast life is definitely true, where everyone is laidback. I was Type A back home, and I would say I still am, but when I came here, people said I was so relaxed and chill and I said, “You don’t know me!” But life is definitely faster here.

I would definitely want more patience with myself and others. When you don’t get a concept for the first time it’s really frustrating but you have to have the patience to have yourself or others understand it. It’s also important to have the humility to ask other people for help.

If you could lead a protest on one thing, what would it be?
Stupidity or ignorance. I would definitely lead it against people like my parents who are closed-minded about gay marriage and everything. I feel like that’s just based on ignorance and all. If you sat them down in a classroom and taught them or had them meet people, things would change. I feel like ignorance is the basis of a lot of problems, because people haven’t taken the time to go out and meet people in other cultures.

Interview by Braden McDonald