It\u2019s strange to be back at Harvard as a senior.\u00a0 Many of the buildings, spaces and social settings that once felt forbidding or intimidating are now familiar and sweet, freighted with associations and memories. \u00a0For most seniors, I believe the campus feels more comfortable and navigable than ever before.\u00a0 But this semester, in an unexpected way, Harvard feels brand-new to me again.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been looking at my peers and surroundings with something like the convict\u2019s heightened consciousness of being alive.\u00a0 The clock is ticking, and these are experiences to savor \u2013 days to feel in their fullness.<\/p>\n
My senior friends have already started to talk about their \u201clasts.\u201d\u00a0 The Last Fall Semester, the Last First Day of School, the Last Fall Formal \u2013 even the Last Move-In Day.\u00a0 While it may seem like we\u2019re prematurely eulogizing our time at Harvard, I prefer to think of it as a way of noticing<\/em> \u2013 a way of establishing ourselves in the very present moment.\u00a0 It\u2019s our way of honoring the traditions and quirks of undergraduate life that we\u2019ve internalized over the past three years.<\/p>\n Amid the excitement of year number four, and the relief that comes with reaching long-awaited milestones, part of me deeply envies the incoming class of 2015.\u00a0 The grounds are graced once again with a Yard full of freshmen, most of whom have only vague plans for the next four years.\u00a0 To them, college is a series of unknowns stretching into the future, studded with manifold new beginnings.\u00a0 While they\u2019re picking and choosing their favorite Student Clubs and course-loads, I\u2019m hustlin\u2019 to fill my final Core requirements.<\/p>\n But then a thought occurs to me: In many ways, I can still take advantage of the very same on-campus possibilities as the first-years. \u00a0Sure, it\u2019s too late to change my Concentration.\u00a0 But in most other aspects of campus life, senior status doesn\u2019t preclude me from joining a club or a sports team, or from making new friends, or from trying courses in a different field. \u00a0Boston is still waiting to be discovered, and there are still spots on campus that seem mysterious and unexplored.\u00a0 To my fellow fourth-years, both at Harvard and elsewhere: let\u2019s not forget that we still have an entire year of college left before us, and that new beginnings are for everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s strange to be back at Harvard as a senior.\u00a0 Many of the buildings, spaces and social settings that once felt forbidding or intimidating are now familiar and sweet, freighted with associations and memories. \u00a0For most seniors, I believe the campus feels more comfortable and navigable than ever before.\u00a0 But this semester, in an unexpected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4468,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[29786],"class_list":["post-1318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-senior-year"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4468"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1318"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1339,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318\/revisions\/1339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}