Post-Turkey Day Musings

Returning to three papers and 35-degree weather after Thanksgiving weekend can make one question how thankful we should all truly be to attend Harvard. Thankfully (no pun intended), the five and a half hour flight back from California gave me just enough time to compile a list of reasons I’m glad I transferred to Harvard from UCLA. Below are a few of my favorites (and the five and a half hour flight isn’t one of them):

1. Harvard’s athletic spirit (or lack thereof): I’m thankful that not liking to watch college sports does not make me an outcast, and that only going into the stadium for the last 10 minutes of the Harvard-Yale game was perfectly acceptable. If I had stayed at UCLA, I’d probably already be standing in line to get seats for the USC game this Saturday, and I’d probably have to learn enough about football to understand what was happening when I actually sat and watched the game instead of passing the time tailgating outside of it.

2. The Weather: I’m thankful that it is nearly freezing in Cambridge for the majority of the year. I really didn’t like sun to begin with, and spending my time in 80-degree weather wearing a skirt and tank top these past five days reassured me of that. I’d much rather wear a big puffy coat that makes me look like a marshmallow, and knowing that I might catch frostbite as I walk to class in the snow each day brings added excitement to my life.

3. The Way We Look: I’m thankful that I can gain approximately ten to fifteen pounds during the winter because A. No one will notice since I’ll be barely recognizable under the mounds of clothing I’ll be wearing, and B. No one will care because Harvard is not in Southern California where salad is a big meal and girls who look like they’re on Baywatch really exist.

4. Diversity: I’m thankful that my friends at Harvard come from all over the world rather than only a small corner of it (95 percent of students at UCLA are from California). It’s nice to actually recognize the difference between accents, considering that at UCLA the only accents I heard were those of my professors. It’s especially nice to hear stories of where my friends grew up that, for once, don’t sound even remotely similar to my own (or to an episode of the OC for that matter).

5. People actually stay on campus for the weekend: I’m thankful that going home for Thanksgiving is special because it’s not the norm to leave campus on the weekends (Think “commuter-school”). It’s nice to go to a college where I’ve started to call my dorm “home”, where my housemates have become a second family, and where I feel disheartened even leaving for a few days.

6. Investment banking: I’m pretty sure that I didn’t actually know what this term meant before transferring to Harvard. Then again, I don’t really know what it means now. Nonetheless, I’m thankful to have discovered that “I-banking” is a real profession. It’s comforting to know that a fancy suit, a Harvard degree, and the capacity to interview well are all you need for a six-figure salary in this country. I am particularly glad to have found this out because I was beginning to worry that the American Dream of hard work leading to success was a dying concept.

7. My mother: I’m thankful that my mother can embarrass me even more than before because she can now be sure to work the fact that I attend Harvard into every conversation with just about anyone. I’m pretty sure my mother has had the following exchange with approximately 50 percent of the store clerks along the West Coast:

My Jewish mother with Long Island Accent: Could you please wrap that? My daughter will need that wrapped because she will have to put it in her suitcase when she goes back to Boston.

Store Clerk: Is she going to school out there? How lovely.

Jewish Mother: Yes, she goes to Harvard. (Calling loudly across the store) Jillian!? Won’t this be nice when you go back to HARVARD?

8. The education: I’m thankful that at Harvard I can graduate in four years without any trouble (average graduation time at UCLA is four and a quarter years, and it often takes longer), that I almost always get the classes I want, that my professors are top of their fields and genuinely passionate about the material, and that I am challenged, surprised, and stimulated by my classes every day. I’d put money on the inability to find most of these qualities at almost any other university in the U.S.

9. The dining hall staff: Though the food at Harvard may not be as good (UCLA served different food in each of its dining halls, had a wood-brick oven to bake pizza in, and a dessert selection that would challenge any Parisian bakery), I am thankful for those who cook and serve our meals each day. I think the only other people who have ever cared so much about making me happy were my parents, and they probably felt obligated to because I’m related by blood.

10. The people: Last but not least, I’m thankful for the people that have come into my life as a result of transferring to Harvard. I don’t think it is possible to find a more unique, intelligent, talented, motivated, and genuinely interesting group of people any where else in the world. Above any class, any job offer, or any freezing cold day, friends are what we will remember most from Harvard and what will make our time here complete.

Turkey day might be over, but the list of thanks goes on. I’ve left out a few important ones—late night Felipe’s and that man who plays the weird string instrument outside of The Coop, for example—but mostly, I’m just thankful that I didn’t transfer to Yale.



Jillian N. London ’07 is a philosophy concentrator in Adams House. Her column appears on alternate Wednesdays.