Word: essay
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This morning I took my last midterm. As I scribbled the final words of an illegible essay, the realization hit me: it was my last midterm at Harvard, perhaps ever. I am not at all sorry about this...
...that I was kicking around the back of my mind while writing my thesis. From time to time I would feel the need to read ethical teachings about scholarship. I looked up what the rabbis said about learning Torah. I read Ruskin on reading. I read Samuel Johnson's essay "On Scholarship." I found these to be real pick-me-ups, my version of chugging espressos and popping Vivarin. The whole thesis process tends to be "meta" as it is, focusing as much attention on the experience of research and writing as on the actual subject of the project...
Loyalty. It's something we all know a good deal about, even if we don't always realize its complexity. We are loyal to family, old friends, roommates and blockmates, our school, even to our baseball team. Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s essay, "The End of Loyalty" which appeared in the March 9 issue of The New Yorker laid out a current philosophical debate: where does loyalty come from, and do we care about its (apparent) demise...
...strange feeling would go away with a good night's sleep, I was disappointed to discover it is still with me. I began to worry and suspect Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). A friend told me to go to the doctor. I sucked it up and finished a short application essay...
...asked by a parent. She wanted to know, much to the visible disappointment of her daughter, how important SAT scores are in the admissions process. "Well" said Julie, "SATs are certainly important, but don't worry about them too much." The mother then asked "Can we see your admissions essay? I bet it was incredible." (The daughter thinks "You wonder why I'm going out of state for college...