Congratulations Class of 2018 we should be so proud of ourselves for all our
accomplishments and hard work and bla bla bla bla bla bla bla
this week we have been hearing that non-stop friends and family take
pictures of us as if we were the John Harvard statue itself hug us to make up
for our lack of physical contact over the past four years and continually
commend us on the most wonderful achievement of our lives thus far
Harvard but let's be honest with ourselves it's been far from a smooth
journey let's not forget that you contracted mono within the first week of
arriving to campus you sold your soul to David Malin for an I took CS50 t-shirt
you never dated anyone seriously or at all and your grandma is panicking how
could you do this to her you concentrated in English or in economics
but you still can't explain inflation you got a 32% on your or go mid term and
worse a b-plus in the Hebrew Bible you slacker you drank more wine than water
and wished more than once that someone had stopped you from finishing those
scallion pancakes at the Kong over four years you made a total of three phone
calls home and you stopped practicing the piano you were so good and now
you're still in the job search process these things take time mom and dad so to
all that I say congratulations
we did make it through a significant amount though we trekked through a
hundred and ten inches of snow freshman year broke thousands of plastic forks
eating red spice chicken during the HUD strike and came to realize those wisdom
tooth surgeries were actually the mumps we learned a whole new language in which
blocking meant make making your first harvard enemies long distance meant an
eight minute shuttle ride and advising meant receiving an email once a semester
we learned to question our surroundings I've heard some interesting ones over
the past few years such as is anyone in the Lampoon funny how does Crimson key
measure facial symmetry does Harvard model Congress actually attend any
conferences during their fully funded vacations why would women want to join
the Hasty Pudding or anyone for that matter
why do Harvard acapella groups purposely arrange their music to sound off-key and
what does she mean when she says she took on her position as punch master of
the bee to truly make a difference these are all valid questions and for
answers please email Dean Khurana at FAS. harvard.edu with USGSO sanctions in
the subject line for a guaranteed quick response but how much of this really
matters from the moments we walked for the yard as wide-eyed freshmen as former
valedictorians debate champions and team captains
we have questioned our choices and performances we enrolled in a course
without realizing called rejection 10a which although tough was still more
tolerable than expose 20 in my first two years of college I went through eight
comp processes and got into only two of those organizations I was rejected from
classes anyone wanting to write a 25-page paper on carbon taxes should be
allowed to do so and worse I was quaded and with each apparent failure or
letdown I questioned myself was I not smart enough not talented enough not
Upper East Side enough but the number of times we applied to expose 40 or the
number of times we comp the advocate and still didn't get in or the number of
times we sat on a bench during a basketball game is not what defines us
what matters is what we did next we found the strength to try again to
discover another creative outlook and to wake up the next morning and train even
harder what matters is that we learn from our mistakes to never again speak
to a crimson reporter and to only go to UHS if you wanted an IV after yardfest
so tomorrow when we exit these gates we will take with us not only our GPAs or
hoops prizes or capacity to write a 20-page paper in one night but also our
grit and determination our ability to face the inevitable challenges ahead we
will of course also take with us our understanding of very useful theoretical
models and hype medical thought experiments a perception
that 7 minutes late is still on time and a dependence on Lesley Kerwin to tell us
when to wear our snow boots we have much to be grateful for Thank You Harvard for
giving us friends to wake us up for our 9 a.m. finals for giving us grad
students to lead us through four hours of silence in section and for somehow
making our SLS's count as SPU's so family and friends to couch our cameras
open your arms for that hug and join me in celebrating the class of 2018
let's celebrate all the battles we have lost and all the messes we have made
class of 2018 keep venturing keep falling down and keep getting right back
up thank you