BLee-ve It!: Final Tales from the Front Lines

I've been writing columns for seven semesters, and it's hard to believe that this is the last one. Seniors, it doesn't seem possible our time is up, because we were moving into the Yard just yesterday.

I've always tried to make the best use of the space I've been given for "BLee-ve It!," whether it was to bring up issues like racism and dying young or to discuss why "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?" sucks. After sportswriting for eight years, I've discovered a few things--first, that sports are about people, because athletes are first and foremost humans; second, sports aren't all that important in the big scheme of things, but they help us understand the big scheme of things.

As I often do, I'll start out with a few random observations:

Let's bullet-point these in Quark. /DSS

1) I didn't really care about the living wage thing until I saw one of the women that cleans the Pforzheimer dining hall eating food at midnight off of one of the trays left from dinner. It was painful to see the way she was chewing that food so slowly, knowing that she needed to eat but hating the taste of the cold chicken. Honestly, dinner that night wasn't good when it was hot, so I'm sure it was worse cold.

2) Mike Tyson might be banned from boxing in the UK because he's on medication for depression. Plus, British tabloids report he's too mellow to train. Quite a few women wish this had happened a while ago.

3) Hugh Grant and Liz Hurley have separated "temporarily." Is this guy the biggest dope ever invented, or what? First of all, he cheats on her with a hideously ugly hooker; then, he makes a fool of himself with his whirlwind apology tour. As Jay Leno asked, "Hugh, what were you thinking?"

Now, he "amicably" splits with her? Hugh, you nincompoop! You don't "amicably" split with Liz Hurley. Wake up! You've got to do whatever it takes to keep her, unless it involves something really weird, say dressing up like an unruly schoolboy and being forced to play "That's a paddling."

4) Best cartoons ever: (1) Transformers (2) G.I. Joe (3) He-Man. No arguments, although Thundercats is definitely honorable mention.

Okay, on to the business of this column, which I guess is both a look back to the past and maybe some words of wisdom for the future.

I've had a great time at Harvard, and an integral part of that has been working at The Crimson. I have been fortunate to see some pretty incredible things, like the 1997 Harvard football team's 7-0 Ivy League season. I saw 35 of the games senior linebacker and NFL fourth-round draftee Isaiah Kacyvenski has played in, and it was like watching a man shoving around boys.

I saw Harvard beat Princeton, 14-12, in 1997 when kicker Mike Giampaolo made a field goal that went through despite being tipped, before hitting a career-long 43-yarder for the win. That game was tied, 5-5, at one point, something I've never seen in any other football game at any level.

I saw Harvard beat Princeton, 23-22, in 1998 thanks to a halfback pass by Chris Menick. I saw Harvard shellac Penn, 33-0, to clinch the Ivy title in 1997. I saw Harvard score 52 points against Holy Cross. I saw the same Mike Giampaolo miss a 19-yarder and Rich Linden fumble on his own 15-yard line to cost the Crimson The 1998 Game.

I interviewed Joe Ciollo '99 when he described a track victory over B.C. as a "bloodbath," claiming that "it was the most points I ever saw one team score." He also predicted that the B.C. athletes would all be "in therapy Monday morning." The next morning, the B.C. track coach called and threatened to cancel the annual dual meet.

So there have been plenty of historic moments, but I've also experienced the bizarre thanks to The Crimson. There was the threat of physical violence from a hockey player after I insulted a plethora of Winter Olympics events, including the luge, the bobsled, figure skating, curling and the Miss Canada pageant. Despite the fact I don't want my bell rung like I'm Eric Lindros, I refuse to apologize.

Then there was the time when Brown football Coach Phil Estes took an innocuous Crimson quote and made it bulletin-board material for his team. Amazingly, he did the same thing the next year. Doesn't that gag get old, or does he only recruit easily manipulated, mindless drones? Maybe Phil's so mind-numbingly uncreative that he has to piggyback on others. Well, no matter what happens on the football field, Brown sucks. Put that on your board, Phil.

Third, I blamed the 1998 football loss to Columbia on bad karma caused by the addition of male cheerleaders. One of them put my editor in a headlock when they ran into each other on the street. Playfully, I think.

Basically, I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly in Harvard athletics. They're all precious memories that I will cherish as an integral part of my college experience, which has been the proverbial best four years of my life.

However, those won't be the defining moments of our time here, and not only because so few students were there to watch them. No, the moments that matter most will be Columbine, the impeachment and the emergence of Britney Spears.

We have been living in a strange, small world. (Harvard athletics is an even stranger, smaller world.) This is a weird place, you know. Remember that for a time, our campus was torn over…grapes.

This strange, small world is special, and Harvard students' talents and expectations are, like so many of our test scores, in the 99th percentile. Who knows what we, the Class of 2000, will accomplish? Do we have another President in our midst? Another Bill Gates, Class of 1977? Another Cornel West '74? Another Unabomber '62?

The only way we'll find out is time. As we go out from here, if you're willing to listen, I've got one piece of advice based on what I've learned in school.

I believe our earthly lives are only temporary but that we can do a lot of good while we're here. Hopefully you already know this by now, but the best way to do that is to care about people.

Most of us put accomplishments first for the vast majority of our lives--doing things for our own future and our own glory. In a way, that paid off, because we're here. But that's too selfish and too shortsighted. That won't leave the world a better place. Instead, care about people, and make it flagrant--give them your time and effort, even if your accomplishments suffer. What we're going to remember from Harvard are the people, not our grades in Ec 10. So use a concept from Ec 10--invest yourself wisely.