A Full Circle? Hardly.
As I sat in Science Center C to take my final Harvard exam, I couldn’t help but notice the irony. It was in this room in the fall of 2005 that I was taking Life Sciences 1a and beginning my Harvard career. Now, four years later, I was taking the final for a class that was far less legitimate and in no way related to science. Sitting there, I couldn’t help but think of who I was then and who I am now, of all the things that had changed and of all the things that had stayed the same.
Back then, I was romatically inexperienced. I was not out to my father. Now, I’ve not only fallen in and out of love; I’ve also cried to my dad throughout the process.
Back then, I was a premed biochem concentrator because I wanted to make my family proud and because I hated any sort of uncertainty. Now, I am graduating with an AB in Sociology and going to law school.
And even now, as I look at pictures of freshman year, I realize just how much things have changed: people have come and gone from my life, I look older, I care much less what people think of me.
Of course, a lot of things have stayed the same as well—among them, my closest friends. Lena still writes highly un-kosher things on her blog (albeit less frequently now), Mandy still falls asleep at inappropriate times (channeling the LifeSci 1a final exam), and Megan still can act drunker than the drunkest person without ever having a sip of alcohol.
Sitting in that room made me nostalgic, perhaps even a little emotional. It made me realize how different I was then. I was more innocent. Less confident. More needy. More emotional. It made me realize that I can never go back and be that person again—even if I wanted to. But more than anything, finishing college in the exact same place I started made me realize just how far I’d moved forward. And that’s something I would never change.
