Convocation and College Life

            Hello again everybody! Sorry this is a little late; yesterday was pretty busy. We had convocation, and the term officially started. But before all of that, a little about the past week.

Things were actually fairly laid-back for the first week. If you want to expend all your energy exploring and meeting new people as much as humanly possible, you can, but most people don’t. The first week is a time to settle in, to adjust. There are a lot of things to adjust to.

There is, of course, college life in general. One has to wake up oneself, manage to get up, and then coordinate one’s events for the day without forgetting anything dreadfully important. So far, there aren’t that many things to remember, but that’s about to change. I already have a certain amount of experience with this, but things are more complicated now. I’ll keep you posted.

Then there are the little things – it rains here, and it’s starting to get colder already; and the big things – the sexual assault prevention and response presentation was a little brazen, and it made some people pretty uncomfortable. However, overall, the experience has been a good one. The population is diverse, interesting and amiable. I don’t think I have a better example than the freshman talent show last night – the performers covered everything from playing the dulcimer to improv comedy to beatboxing, and did everything very, very well.

So, with those initial impressions (we are, after all, still at the beginning) out of the way, on to convocation and the future.

The convocation ceremony wasn’t bad, actually. There were several speakers who offered the usual advice, including the Dean of Freshman, the Dean of Undergraduate Admissions and the President of Harvard University, Drew Faust. There were also quite a few choral pieces, beautifully performed.

The ceremony was especially interesting for a few reasons. First, it rained, which meant the ceremony was inside, split up into two buildings. Since the point of convocation is for the whole class to physically assemble, just like graduation, the division led to an unforeseen layer of irony. The invocation was also a little interesting, prayed in the name of “everything holy, everything transcendent, and everything forever comforting.” I don’t think we’re in the Bible Belt anymore.

Convocation is important because it is the official beginning of everything. Up until yesterday, we had two or three meetings or presentations a day and after that were mostly left to ourselves. There were plenty of invitations by groups or clubs, but no obligations. All of that changes today. The days in my calendar before this are almost empty; starting today, things get crazy.

There are so many things to do! We don’t exactly start classes today, but classes do start. It’s “shopping period,” where we try them out, but if you already have a solid plan, you attend those classes regularly. So my schedule is going to be fairly regular. All of the extra-curriculars* also start activities – the Christian groups, the community service groups, all the singing groups, the intermural sports, and the thousand other things people do here.

This has filled up my schedule quite a bit, in combination with the fact that I’ve started meeting people, mainly from the aforementioned Christian groups. Whenever I don’t have an event or a class, I have a meeting. Which is great, despite the fact that I find the sight of my schedule vaguely terrifying at the moment.

But that’s what we’re here for – to take advantage of all the opportunities available for us. And there are so many opportunities – there are over 5000 course offerings. Think about it. That means, even at five classes every semester, each student will learn only .08% of what Harvard has to offer.

I am scared of my class load; I want the material to be challenging, but not impossible. I’m scared of my extra-curriculars; I want to do a lot, but I don’t want to overload. I’m scared of opportunity, but it is a good, or at least necessary, fear.  I want to max out my potential, and that means taking risks. I want to be far enough out to swim, but that means the risk of being in over my head.

 

 

So we’ll see what happens in the next few weeks. Hopefully by the next time I write, I’ll have worked into a routine that manages to balance classwork, exercise, and extra-curriculars. I will know what my schedule is and be ready to follow it - not the shell-shocked, still-in-summer-mode person I feel like right now. Hopefully, the ten-minute conversations and follow-up meetings I have this week will blossom into long-lasting friendships. Only time will tell.

At convocation, they told us that these four years would fly by faster than we could believe. I think that applies to pretty much everything – it has to do with exponential curves and the fact that a year is a smaller percentage of your life every year – but whatever the reason, I’m sure it’s true. So it is my prayer that all of us will use these four years to form friendships, learn all we can, enjoy what we love, do amazing things, and begin to become the people we were meant to be.

*I am aware that according to dictionary.com, “curriculars” is not a word. But extra-curricular activities is way too long and has annoyed me for a very long time. So consider this ‘s’ my rebellion against the system. :)  

And these pictures were taken by me sometime during the week (sorry about the quality). When I get a little more time I will add some pictures of my entryway before convocation that my proctor took - so check up in a few hours or a couple days. Other than that, until next week!