Returning to campus for spring semester feels different this time around. Two of my dear friends are studying abroad (Natalia Huizar SC ’25 and Eliana Meza-Ehlert PZ ’25), my class schedule is the most peculiar it’s ever been (I only have class Monday through Wednesday, but on Mondays I end class at 10 p.m.) and, as with every semester, I’m acclimating myself to a new routine.
I’m doing my best to embrace the changes, celebrating the return of the fall ’23 study abroaders and opening myself up to the possibility that perhaps my evening Dream Lore class will shed some insight into my own dreams, but these changes are also making me all the more grateful for the small things I’m able to carry over from one semester to the next. Malott breakfast, in particular, has been a constant in my college experience.
I’ve eaten Malott breakfast on a regular basis ever since my sophomore fall, which also means that yes, I consistently made the trek up to Scripps College even when I lived all the way on Pomona College’s South Campus. I never minded the walk because I’m a naturally early riser. I actually appreciated the way it forced me to get some steps first thing in the morning. I also loved seeing people from the neighborhood taking their dogs on a leisurely walk throughout campus. Now that I live on Pomona’s North Campus, the walk takes me half as long, but I am still thankful for the way this act of going to Malott breakfast gets me swiftly out the door and moving each day. As much as I love my bed, the routine of going to breakfast has helped me start my days off right. Each morning I wake up, get ready and am out the door in a flash — after all, Malott breakfast is calling.
I also appreciate Malott breakfast because it’s over this meal that — when alone — I’m able to get a surprising amount of work done. In previous semesters, I would sit in Malott and plow through the densest Phonology and Bilingual Cognition readings that I struggled to comprehend even the night before and this semester I find myself already doing the same with my English readings. For some reason, it is in this dining hall, in the early hours of the morning, that I am able to more lucidly formulate my thoughts on grief versus melancholia, archetypal formations in dreams, what exactly happened in Act 2 of Christopher Marlowe’s “The Jew of Malta” — and actually put words to a page.
I don’t exactly know if my enhanced productivity and mental clarity is coming from Malott’s cold brew (which I’ve expressed my love for in a previous column), the combination of cold brew in one hand and a smoothie that I’ve been trying out recently in the other, or the quiet ambience of the dining room, where all I can hear is the whirring of the coffee machines and sounds of other early risers click-clacking away on their computers. It’s possible, too, that Malott’s granola is the secret to my success. Quite frankly, I love Malott’s granola. It’s crunchy but not too chunky and I, along with my friend Chloe Chen PO ’27, personally appreciate the fact that it is raisin-free (Chloe is also an avid Malott granola fan!). It’s the perfect topping to a heap of Greek yogurt, or perhaps on a slightly more controversial note (I know that some people have qualms about the texture), my go-to base — cottage cheese.
I eat breakfast on my own most of the time, but on the occasion when other friends join me in the dining hall, I am also grateful for Malott breakfast in how it holds space for sweet conversations as we start our days. Sometimes, when we are all tired from the night before, the conversations are of few words (and instead yawns and subsequent laughter), but that’s okay. Whether we come to breakfast energized and chatty or evidently sleepy, I am grateful for Malott breakfast for providing me opportunities to sit down with my friends in the mornings, check-in briefly and then go about our all-too-busy schedules.
Overall, Malott breakfast has been a much-needed pillar of constancy for me as a brand new semester has begun. I will be honest — though we are entering week four, I feel as if it is week 10 already, and this early-morning meal at Scripps’ lovely dining hall has provided me the stability that I crave amidst the hustle and bustle of classes and clubs and work and social events. I hope that as we settle into this new semester, you can find some source of stability, too. Maybe, one morning, you can join me at Malott. I’ll be by the cold brew and you’ll find me engrossed in my readings.
Emily Kim PO ’25 is from Irvine, California. Her current hyperfixation song is “Bruises Off the Peach” by Ryan Beatty and at the moment she is very tempted to buy Hello Kitty platform crocs.
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