<<...But perhaps there was something far more serious that worried her, something she felt she couldn't tell anyone about. And so she transferred her anxiety and frustration to the question of the thesis and Jim's handling of it...>>
I agree with both JD & Janice about the idea that she could have been transferring her anxiety over other things to the thesis when talking to her parents and friends.
First, we know that she was president of the Best Buddies so in addition to her thesis stress, the odds are good that she would have been involved in the planning and responsibility for the party that she attend the night she was killed. In fact, the Vanity Fair article-->
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indicates that she organized the party and spent a lot of time with her "Best Buddy."<<....On the night she was killed. Jovin spent the early part of the evening at Trinity Lutheran Church, four blocks from the campus, at a pizza-making party she had organized for Best Buddies, an international organization that pairs students with mentally disabled adults. She had worked with the Vale chapter since her freshman year, and ran it by the time she was a senior. She would spend hours on the phone with her "buddy," Lee, taking him to Yale games with her friends and arranging outings and social events.>>>
Second, we know that her boyfriend was out of town but came back on the train with someone else who provided an alibi for him. Was she happy about her boyfriend leaving her at this time instead of going to the Best Buddies party with her? Who was he with? Why did he got to New York City for the evening? I don't remember where I got the idea that he came home on the train but here's what the Vanity Fair article said about his movements that night..<<...Her 22-year-old boyfriend, Roman Caudillo, an engineering student, was on his way back to New Haven after spending the evening in New York City...>>
Third, we know that Suzanne was driven to excel in her academic pursuits. She was probably a perfectionist. She may not have simply wanted an "A" on her thesis but some other additional recognition from it as well -- best in the class; highest grade; whatever was available to earn. The Vanity Fair article quotes her friends and family as saying these things about Suzanne's academic achievements:
<<...Educated in the rigorous German school system, Suzanne began to study Latin in the fifth grade and French in the seventh. She played the piano and the cello. In high school, at the Theodor-Heuss Gymnasium, she took a double major in biology and chemistry, passing her exams with top marks.....
...It was always assumed that Jovin would go to college in the United States. Her mother had gotten her Ph.D. from Yale, and Ellen and Diana Jovin, her older half-sisters from her father's first marriage, with whom she was close, graduated from Harvard. Today, Suzanne's grief-stricken parents say they deeply regret having encouraged her to go to the university, but Suzanne loved Yale from the moment she arrived. She immediately got involved in volunteer work-- something her mother had done when she was at Yale, and had urged her daughter to do. Although she started out intending to major in one of the sciences, she switched to a double major in political science and international studies, friends say, after doing poorly in an advanced course in cell biology. "Suzanne and I both decided to take a graduate-level cell-bio class freshman year," a friend remembers, laughing. "We were both from Europe and thought we could do it.... Cell bio, that was the only time I saw her not confident...."
"...I think Suzanne held herself to very high standards partly because her parents were both these brilliant scientists." says another friend. At the time of her death, Jovin was considering a career in the diplomatic service and was finishing applications to graduate schools in the field--including, her parents say, Tufts, Columbia, and Georgetown. She wasn't interested in making money. She hadn't been raised that way, her family says. "She always came down to, you know, helping people and being influential [as] more important," says Bach.....
...In their early reports of Jovin's murder, newspapers and television stations used the same photograph of her. It made Jovin appear fragile, a delicate sparrow of a woman. Her friends were taken aback by the picture. "It didn't look anything like Suzanne really was," one recalls. To begin with, friends insist that Jovin, who was five feet five inches and weighed 125 pounds, was physically quite strong. She jogged, played squash, skied, and sometimes took step-aerobics classes at Yale's Payne Whitney gym. Whoever killed her, her friends say, was very strong or, says one, "someone who knew what they were doing." Nor was Jovin as shy and hesitant as the photograph made her seem. "'Strong-willed' isn't the word." says a friend. "If you were talking about things Suzanne knew about, she would knock you out if she disagreed." "She had very strong opinions," says Rebecca Jovin. "Sometimes she lacked self-confidence, but overall she was the strongest person I ever met....">>
I got the impression that Suzanne was not only volunteering as President of the Best Buddies but was probably also involved in other volunteer activities as well. She sounded like a person who kept herself constantly busy, probably to the point over over-involvement. With activities converging at the end of term, she might have felt overwhelmed. She wouldn't have wanted to say that to her parents. It was important for her to keep up her "image" as being "perfect." Complaining about her advisor would have been an acceptable way to release some of her pent up frustration.
Viv |
