To the Freshmen, to Make Much of Time

With a mixture of envy and pity, I watch you doe-eyed freshmen checking both sides of the street before sauntering across Mass Ave, lanyards jingling, still wet behind the ears with the dew of youth. I watch from my lonely park bench, as I feed breadcrumbs out of a crumpled bag to the squirrels. As I wearily enter my fourth and final year, a whole 36 months your elder, I have gained some hard wrought wisdom. This now doddering senior has once run primal scream, committed to a thesis, lived in two houses, quit my thesis, survived CS50, recommitted to a thesis, and visited the quad. So, if you have a moment, listen to the wisdom of this world-wizened senior.

Make friends. Don’t conform.

Did you miss it? You were probably expecting a lot more than two sentences, four words, and seven morphemes. (Count them, future English concentrators, I dare you.) My advice is brief but brevity is the soul of wit. Now let me pedantically explain why in 550 words.

As to the first bit about making friends, it’s no hackneyed coincidence that most seniors will tell you they learned the most from their peers. It’s backed up by facts! Well, statistics at least. (Sorry, future statistics concentrators.)

People made a big hullaballoo this summer when Forbes ranked Harvard only the eighth best school in the country. Looking at their methodology, however, I was delighted. Why? Because Forbes ranks schools based solely on their output, not input like most rankings. More specifically, Forbes discounts the talents that get you in to Harvard and only measures what you get out. Subsequently, while the dip in our ranking may be the cause for disappointment in some, I find it incredibly inspiring. When you factor in the amount of talent that gets students in to Harvard, we rise seven spots as the foremost college in the country. In other words, only with the preexisting talents of its students is Harvard the most illustrious school in the country.

So this means—make friends. Harvard is the preeminent university we all know it to be only because of the people it admits.

As for the second bit about not conforming, that’s trickier. In fact, at times it is at odds with making friends. But it is complimentary with the notion that Harvard’s greatest asset is its human capital.  Since this advice is somewhat contradictory, it implies there is a careful equilibrium to maintain between being accommodating and uncompromising.

Conformity is antithetical to diversity. Diversity of background, interests, and opinions is a tremendously advantageous resource at Harvard. But diversity exists only so long as people refuse to conform. Furthermore, the most general and most important type of diversity is also the most susceptible to conformity: the diversity of thought.

Conformity is often confused with growth. People advise you to “grow.” But “growth” is greatly context specific. For example: “I feel like I really grew from the experience,” vs. “Oh, don’t mind that thing on my leg, it’s just a growth.”  So grow carefully. In fact, sometimes you should do the opposite; develop like a sculpture. Life can be just as much about eliminating options as about creating them. Don’t erode however. Each abrasion should be deliberate rather than the result of any external or involuntary corroding influence. Make sure to grow as though through osmosis—from greater to lesser, from higher concentration to lower (specifically concentrations of solvent, for the nitpicky future Chemistry concentrators).

Now, because I couldn’t resist, here are some random bits of advice I’ve picked up here and there which you might find useful.

Carry gum with you. It’s an easy way to make quick friends with that cute guy in the second row. I recommend Juicy Fruit—it’s suggestive. Wander around the textbooks in the Coop. When a cluster of book titles catches your eye, you might want to take that class.Learn one interesting fact from all departments and you’ll never be caught off guard when talking to a cute girl with a joint concentration in Folk and Mythology and Astrophysics. If you get the literary reference in the title, an English concentration might serve you well. Also take any course with Professor Gordon Teskey.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s nearly 4:30, Jeopardy’s almost on, and I’m headed to a dinner of chicken noodle soup, seltzer water, and medication.

Sarah R. Siskind ’14 is a government concentrator in Adams House.