Close Midd friends have helped Nínive Calegari ’93 through both first-year fails and professional milestones.

In March 2024 Calegari shared her story as part of the “Purpose and Place: Voices of Middlebury” event during the San Francisco launch of For Every Future: The Campaign for Middlebury.

Listen to Calegari’s talk above or read the transcript below.

Transcript

It’s my freshman year and I want to get in shape like all of you. So it’s a beautiful day in the fall, and I head to the gym. Some people are smiling already. I think they know exactly where I’m going. I head to the gym after class. And in those days, for those of you that are young, the old gym, all the treadmills were in front of beautiful windows, the bicycles behind—I’m getting nods—and then the weights. And everything was directed toward the treadmills to take advantage of this gorgeous view.

So it’s packed, and I find a treadmill, and I’m happy. So I jump on and I press, press, press, press until it’s four miles an hour. Jogging, I’m well, looking at the view. Then the fatal flaw. I look down and I notice that the tread is moving diagonally instead of going straight. So I take my right foot, mid-stride while jogging, and try and kick the tread over. 

I trip myself and eat it. So I land, crumpled—my mom, by the way, is from a different country, and today asked me, “What does ‘eat it’ mean?” So eat it means you fall crumpled on the treadmill—I know four miles an hour didn’t impress you earlier, but it’s fast, and it spits me out. So it’s splat, splat.

So I’m on the floor. I’m up so fast. And in this sea of bicycle riders, there’s only one other kid that I know, this awesome, sweet, friendly kid from California. So I walk up to him in an effort to sort of laugh this disaster off. He doesn’t move his lips and he says, “I don’t know you.” 

And so, I vanish. I mean, I agreed with him. I was like, “That’s a good call.” I also felt the same. I vanish. Back to Battell, which was a dump 35 years ago. Happy place, back to Battell, get there, and a few hours later, I go find my girls. So I find my Battell girls. I’m like, “Katie, Vendela, Ali, where are you?” And I say to them, “Oh my gosh, something was so embarrassing.” 

And Katie cuts me off. And she says, “I know.” 

And I said, “What?” 

And she said, “Nínive, the boys downstairs are calling you the Treadmill Girl.” And I just thought, “Okay. Well, this is much worse than I thought.” There’s an expression that’s perfect in Spanish; it’s “Tierra, trágame,” which is just like, “Earth, eat me.” 

So I obviously turned to them and said, “Well, I guess I’m never going back to Proctor. There’s never going to be a chance that I’m walking into that dining hall again.” 

And they wouldn’t have it. They were like, “No, it’s hilarious. Everybody needs a great nickname. They’re teasing you. You have to own it.” 

So they grabbed me and we went down to talk to those said boys, and they were right. Those boys were like, “Hey, Treadmill Girl, are you okay? What happened?” I’m like, “I tripped myself.”

So anyway, Middlebury people don’t need to be told the moral of the story, but I’m going to tell you the moral of the story anyway, which is Middlebury people have your back, and all of those women are still my friends. And in fact, I’m glad that you clapped about 826 because I really do think Middlebury should feel very proud of the fact that when we started 826 [Valencia], it was half from Lake Forest, where Dave Eggers was from, and then half Middlebury people, including Jenny Bunshoft, and then the tiebreaker was my husband.

So I love working with Middlebury people, and I also feel so lucky to have those relationships. And I also feel so lucky to still have Allison Stanger in my life. 

This is the only group I think in the world that would understand what an incredible star alignment this last final little piece is, which is that my daughter was in a class today in Old Chapel discussing The Every, which is a book that Dave Eggers wrote, with Allison Stanger talking about the future of our democracy in an era of AI.

So, just incredible. I know, that’s incredible. A full circle Midd Moment, as Laurie would say. Anyway, since I told you my appropriate but humiliating story, I’m going to hop off the stage now, and I really hope that we have a chance so you can tell me yours.