Are You Arriving or Departing?

When I recently visited an airport, I experienced a moment of panic and confusion as I reached a fork in the road and had to decide whether to take the ramp that said “arriving” or the ramp that said “departing.”

As graduates of Harvard College, let me ask you: Are you arriving or are you departing? Are you arriving at a new station in life, holding your arms out to welcome your newly conferred status as alumni or are your arms grasping at the past—the memories of your undergraduate years from which you now depart? While airport ramps and forks in the road don’t let us simultaneously arrive and depart, at this special moment in your lives, you do have the rare opportunity to simultaneously experience both.

Speaking of arrivals, have you ever stopped to think about how you got here? What were the factors that enabled you to become members of the Harvard College class of 2016? Was it a teacher or a coach who encouraged you to apply, even though you thought Harvard was well beyond your reach? Maybe it was due to your brilliant application essay or the many hours you spent with practice SAT tests or mastering a language. Perhaps there were factors totally out of your control, like your zip code or your parents’ dreams since the day you were born that Harvard was in your future. Maybe, your parents made extraordinary sacrifices, moving from home to home or from one country to another, to put you on the best possible path to Harvard....

Read more at The Harvard Crimson.