Sadat-+Katherine's+Diary

Dear Diary, August 22, 1889 I can’t believe that my older brother, John, is going to the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. The university is about to open in a couple of months and my brother will be making history by being one of the first students to step foot on this campus. About two years ago, the idea of this college was initiated but it was met by some opposition. The University of North Carolina President at the time, President Battle, openly opposed the transfer of land scrip funds from the University of North Carolina to the agricultural school here in Raleigh. But fortunately for us, a bill was passed in March of 1887 to transfer the funds. John is as happy as a peach. He cannot wait to be part of this momentous occasion. To tell you the truth, I am happy for him, but I am also jealous. I wish I could also attend this college, but no girls are allowed to attend. Hopefully, this will change, but for now I am satisfied that my brother will be able to get a decent education. He shall be leaving for school in about a month. There is so much to do between now and then. So until next time dear diary!  Love, Katherine   Dear Diary, December 11, 1889 You will not believe this dear diary, but I just got my first letter from John. He finally got around to writing to me, but I cannot blame the poor boy because apparently school has kept him quite busy. He has been in school for about two months now and according to his letter, he is enjoying and valuing his education immensely. I shall copy his letter into you, dear diary, so I will always have a little piece of John with me. This is what he wrote:  Dear Katherine, December 5, 1889 Greetings little sister from the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, or as we students like to call it, A&M. How have you been my dear sister? How is our dear father and mother? I hope everyone is well. It has been almost two months since I have seen your face or heard from you and I realize that it is because of me. I just have been extremely busy here in school and I rarely have time to do anything but eat, sleep, and study. But I am most certainly happy with the way my education has progressed in just two short months. Did you hear, Katherine, about the North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station being moved here to A&M? I am very excited because this station is trying to make great strides in agricultural improvement, and being an agriculture major, I know that I will benefit greatly from their findings. Well here are my general observations about the college itself. As you know, first day of classes was on the third of October. We have about fifty two students in our class, with the youngest being about 14 years of age. There are six professors and we have only one building. The president of this lovely institution is Alexander Holladay, who initially applied to be just an English professor, but he wound up as president. How ironic! Obviously there are only two majors, one being agriculture and the other is mechanics. But I hear in a few years there might be a third major in applied sciences. But this is all speculation for the time being. Well, I have to end my letter here, dear sister. I am sorry that my letter is short; I promise that the others will be much longer in comparison. Send my love to father and mother and behave yourself. I cannot wait to hear from you so please write soon!  Love, John  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Did you enjoy his letter Diary as much as I did? It seems like he is enjoying himself immensely and he sounds very happy. Well, now I have to write a reply to John’s letter. I daresay there is not a lot happening here at home to inform him about, but oh well. Until next time, dear Diary… <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Love, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Katherine <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Dear Diary, June 20, 1893 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Can you believe that it has been four years since John has been in college? And today is a very special day because it is the first commencement ceremony of the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. This is also significant because it is John’s commencement ceremony. Yes, Diary, he will be graduating this year with a degree in agriculture. We are all very proud of him, including myself. John was extremely busy throughout the four years that he had spent at A&M and his hard work had paid off. He is lucky that he is graduating this year because next year, all students will have to participate in military drills each week. John is not the athletic type; he is more of an intellectual, so doing these drills would just be another burden for him. He actually tried out for the school football team and he did not get in because of his lack of athleticism. I could have saved him the embarrassment of trying out, but I guess he had to learn the hard way. Even though he is not very good in sports, he still attended the football games and I was able to go to one game as well. I went to the very first football game played at A&M, which was about a year ago. It was a glorious game against Raleigh Academy, a preparatory school. The best part was that we had won; the score was 12-6. One thing that was very funny about the game was the uniforms for A&M. The uniforms were pink and blue, the school colors. It is quite humorous to watch a bunch of boys playing a very manly game in the very girly color of pink. Speaking of girls, I hear that in a couple of years, probably in five or six years, A&M will start to accept girl applicants. There has been talk around town, but none of it has any real substantive evidence behind it. But a woman by the name of Sue C. Carroll is employed there, so maybe the rumors might be true. A girl can hope! I know that if the school does open its doors to girls that I will be there waiting. John talks about how great his experience was at A&M, that I want to experience that as well. Well, dear Diary, I am running late as usual. Father and Mother are waiting for me since we are on our way to see John graduate. When I come back, I will write about how happened at the ceremony. So until next time, dear diary! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Love, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Katherine <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">