The End of the Race: One Final Recap

This would be so much easier if I were writing a recap of a cross country meet.

I’d wait for the meet results to be posted online, scan them for Harvard athletes and determine the team’s top performers, and then conduct a couple of interviews and write the recap.

I was taught to focus on the key details and standout performances from the meet results, and after three years of covering the Harvard cross country and track and field teams, it became second nature.

This parting shot asks me to do something similar, but incredibly more difficult: to reflect on my time on The Crimson and at Harvard and pick out the key details and standout memories.

As a former cross country and track and field beat writer, I’ll remember Maksim Korolev and James Leakos’ incredible senior seasons, the women’s track and field team’s Indoor Heps title at Gordon Indoor Track, and Nico Weiler and Martina Salander placing among the nation’s best athletes at the NCAA Championships.

As a former Crimson Sports comp director, I’ll remember hiding scavenger hunt clues in The Coop, accompanying my compers to surprisingly intense field hockey games, dinners with the compers and my co-comp director, and, of course, The Centurion.

And as a former Harvard College student (sad face), I’ll remember the time when we almost accidentally burned down Dewolfe, when I woke up with pinkeye on freshman move-in day, when my blockmates became the biggest band on campus, my freshman River Run (oops), and, of course, the boy dance parties.

These memories are great, but as I see them listed in front of me, I can’t help but feel that so much of the story of my undergraduate career is missing.

Focusing on the significant moments is a perfectly fine way to recap a cross country meet, but it’s a pretty terrible way to summarize a four-year, life-changing experience.

So as I prepare to leave the Harvard bubble and enter the real world, I’ll take both the large and small memories with me. The late-night study sessions and the parties, the basketball games and the Sports Board meetings, and all of the hilarious, miserable, debaucherous, and unforgettable moments in between.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped me navigate this place for four years. It’s been a hell of a ride.

—Staff writer Dominic A. Martinez can be reached at domincadammartinez@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @dominicmTHC.