Summer camp. Seven-year-olds from Rochester, NY, gazed up at giant bottles of ketchup and mustard riverdancing at the talent show. One can only imagine them wondering who in the world could be underneath those ridiculous costumes.The answer is Colgate’s own Emily Good. Anyone who has the privilege of knowing Good can attest that her talents extend far beyond mustard costume-wearing dances.

Nonetheless, her accomplishments do build off of the same vivacious personality she radiated during the day camp where she taught swimming this summer.

A history and education double major, Good has spent three years at Colgate working with both young and old; her studies will culminate in teacher certification and eventual graduate degree work in literacy.

Good will begin student teaching this spring, adding to her already impressive list of activities: membership in Konosioni, the Thurber society, Wind Ensemble, and running COVE’s Banana Bingo.

Good has a remarkable philosophy for life; she believes that everything happens for a reason, and the best way to grow is to step out of your comfort zone. When it came to choosing an abroad experience her junior year, Good went an alternative route. Rather than traveling with a Colgate program, she chose to go to a new country on her own and attend the University of Edinburgh.Though Good had no Colgate contact there, she befriended another American whom she still keeps in close touch with.She says she was lonely in the beginning, but her isolation allowed her to enjoy the Scottish culture on a deeper and more integrated level.

Upon her return to the United States, Good couldn’t stop thinking about returning to Colgate.

“It was different for me because I went abroad alone,” Good remarked.

Ultimately, when Good walked up the hill last week leading the torchlight ceremony during convocation, she realized her feelings about the University as a whole.

As she was gazing around at the freshman class gathered silently on the academic quad, inspiration struck.

“It just hit me,” Good said. “This is the best place on earth.”

For a girl who has known since she was seven that she wanted to teach, and has taken on an active leadership role during her college years, these words reflect the certainty and delight that Good exudes in the rest of her life, and can only reassure the rest of us that we should all look around and recognize just how wonderful our lives here really are.