Welcome to September.
Welcome to the beginning of the school year. Do you remember as a youth that feeling of elation shopping for new pens and composition notebooks with your mother? The palpable, electric undercurrent of a brand new year. Here it is again.
As if somehow a stack of brand-new highlighters, new sticky notes, a new planner holds the key to your happiness. As a reflection of your entire future capabilities: "This year, I'm going to be organized... This year, I'm going to read all the things..."
The stack of beautiful, new, blank pages holds a million possibilities. A recharge of a feeling that
you can do or be whatever you want to be. (Don't worry, the feelings of inadequacy and hopelessness won't come until later) For now, just enjoy the September feeling of infinite potential.
Now please join me, as we start into a new school year at Harvard. The first thing the Dean says is, "Don't worry. This is not a joke. This is not a dream...." audience exhales "...You are supposed to be here. We did not make a mistake. Welcome to Cambridge."
In other words, Wonderland.
You've now stepped down the rabbit hole into an autumnal, scholastic, magical world. Where, "depending on where you want to get to, if you don't know where you want to go, it doesn't matter which road you take" because down any one of them is enchantment.
Not only are many professors at the top of their field, but many of the concepts they're teaching are ones they discovered or invented. This is not an ivory tower--it's an ivory planning zone. The intellect here is only useful as far as it can contribute to the universe. Professors research intellectually but moreover, practically. "How do we use this knowledge to help..."
If there's magic in the world, it's here:
It's in communities like this; conversations and discourse and learning to help better humanity.
I feel so unbelievably lucky to have stumbled down into this particular magical rabbit hole.
Welcome to the beginning of the school year. Do you remember as a youth that feeling of elation shopping for new pens and composition notebooks with your mother? The palpable, electric undercurrent of a brand new year. Here it is again.
The stack of beautiful, new, blank pages holds a million possibilities. A recharge of a feeling that
you can do or be whatever you want to be. (Don't worry, the feelings of inadequacy and hopelessness won't come until later) For now, just enjoy the September feeling of infinite potential.
In other words, Wonderland.
You've now stepped down the rabbit hole into an autumnal, scholastic, magical world. Where, "depending on where you want to get to, if you don't know where you want to go, it doesn't matter which road you take" because down any one of them is enchantment.
Not only are many professors at the top of their field, but many of the concepts they're teaching are ones they discovered or invented. This is not an ivory tower--it's an ivory planning zone. The intellect here is only useful as far as it can contribute to the universe. Professors research intellectually but moreover, practically. "How do we use this knowledge to help..."
If there's magic in the world, it's here:It's in communities like this; conversations and discourse and learning to help better humanity.
I feel so unbelievably lucky to have stumbled down into this particular magical rabbit hole.
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| School actually looks like this |
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| But school Feels like THIS |
Nice, Ave. Good luck!
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