This week, The Argus sat down with Sierra Van Wijk ’25. As a triple major, tour guide, and longtime student worker, Van Wijk told us about managing the fullest schedule, making homes, and discovering the soul-y nature in things.

The Argus: Why do you think you were nominated to be a WesCeleb?

Sierra Van Wijk: Freshman year, I became pretty well known because I worked [at Summerfields] where everybody came to get their food. People would come in during late night all the time, all types of people. Especially freshman year, when you couldn’t go [inside], it could have been so robotic. And I was just like, “No, I’m gonna say hi to every single person here.” After freshman orientation I already had like 300 names in my phone. I was on a crazy level. I wanted to meet everybody. I feel like that’s dwindled a lot since then. But I’ll always say hi to everybody.

A: Those qualities probably make you a great tour guide! Can you talk a bit about that?

SVW: I was helping [some friends] apply to be a tour guide [my freshman year], and I was like, “No, that’s scary. I know nothing.” So I just avoided that job, and stayed with my other jobs. Then last summer I decided to stay on campus—I’m housing insecure and I needed a job. So I applied to the admissions office, and it was a combination of answering phones, giving tours, doing info sessions. So I was working there all summer, eight to four, and it was so much fun. I got pretty good at it, so they asked [me to stay on to work the front desk or give tours] and I’m like, “Yeah, give me both of them.”

A: Do you have any crazy tour guide stories?

SVW: I’m probably the craziest part of our tours. I talk forever. All summer long, I was struggling to get it under an hour and a half. People would be giving co-tours with me and say, “You have like 16 different stories,” and I’m like, “Is that not the point? Do they not want to know?” But, like, half of them aren’t even about me. [It’s] because I want [prospective families] to know everything. I didn’t get to go on tours, because it was COVID, and I was late to the application process.

A: I also know you’re a triple major.

SVW: Well, the plan was three majors, three years. I came in knowing I wanted to do psych[ology] and [sociology]. And I had grown up a theater kid before COVID [because my hometown] had a really good theater program. The town? Not that great. School system? Questionable at times. The theater department? They were amazing. I don’t know [why]. That was my job in high school. I didn’t want to be home. I wanted to be in the theater. Then boom, COVID. I was just so heartbroken—I was like, theater is done. 

Then I got [to Wesleyan] and I was like, “Hmm, 9.5 credit major.” And then my professor, amazing. I love this man—Eddie Sanchez. To this day my advisor, doing my thesis. After September, I said I was going to be a triple major. I realized, “Oh shit, I can’t afford this school for that long.” And then I said three years. And so I went ham my first two years and didn’t spend money anywhere else, just for tuition. I worked Summies all the time—as much as I could. They limit you at 20 hours [a week]: I was there 20 hours. Working, working, working. Sophomore year, I did nine classes—7.5 credits.

And then junior year, I excommunicated from my family, and so I didn’t have home anymore. And so I said, “Hey, college resources,” right? I get to take more fun classes, stretch out my last semester, do what every other college student is doing. So no more three years, but three majors were technically done in three years. I feel like all my bad luck—because I have a lot of bad luck—does line up into some very good luck. Very limited, but it’s there.

A: Reflecting on your three majors, does one path for the future stand out to you?

SVW: The crazy part is, I was going to do psych forever. I could already tell it’s gonna get massive. And I knew that because of all the people I knew that were struggling, how young we all were, and how much everything was getting ignored. I just knew in high school: This is something I’m impacted by—let me impact the field. But this year took so much wind out of my sails. I can’t be responsible for broad claims about things we barely understand. I don’t want to sit there and be like, “Yeah, because of my theory on this, it could do this.” As somebody who was oppressed by people’s theories way back when, I’m really, really struggling to conceptualize that in a way that I can be helpful. I’ll have to do some soul-searching and find a job that’s more soul-y.

A: What does a soul-y job mean?

SVW: I just need a job that I’m happy to go into. It doesn’t even have to be the job—it could just be the people. I just need something that feeds my soul until I can feed my bank account, to feed my mind. I’m not aiming for immediate success. I’m not greedy. I have nowhere to go after college. I just have to find home somewhere. And that’s terrifying, but I’m okay with that. I’ll find a job and make that home location somewhere, and I already have my person. I’m set. I’m really good at finding people. It’s kind of a ridiculous, optimistic outlook, but it’s working pretty well, so I don’t fall into my nihilistic existentialism.

A: Turning from the future to the past, how do you think you’ve changed since freshman year?

SVW: I found people. I’ve lost so many people. The benefit of losing people I care about—physically, metaphysically or just personally (I still see them around, but I don’t talk to them anymore)—[is that] I know that I can do it again. I spent a long time running and hiding, so my high school friends didn’t really know me. My freshman year college friends didn’t really know me. I’m just finding out who me is now. And the people who are finding out who I am now, I’m pretty sure they’re sticking around for a while.

A: Someone asked me this question recently, and it’s stuck with me: What’s the one thing you’re always thinking about these days?

SVW: The goal, in very broad terms, is to be happy. I’m trying to be intentional. I want to be happy long term. I can trust myself to kick it into high gear tomorrow. I’ve also been dying for these apple ciders lately. I feel so happy. It’s so warm. I love it so much. These have been on my mind a lot lately.

 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Thomas Lyons can be reached at trlyons@wesleyan.edu.