Word: m
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...suspect I knew then what I'm sure of now: it wasn't really the name itself I wanted to change, it was the person who'd wear it on a "Hello my name is" sticker at countless introductory meetings in the fall. I wasn't horribly unhappy with life in high school, but I had learned after four years my own weaknesses, the particular defects of my personality I wanted to leave with my old name in Connecticut. Entering college is one of those precious few transition points in our lives where it really is possible to refashion...
...certain amount of that change, though, is due to my own initiative; the rest, I think, is part of growing up. The more radical changes I though I could make to my personality failed miserably. Again, I won't get into the details too much--maybe because I'm holding out hope that I can leave those shortcomings at Harvard when I go to grad school--but I will give you some advice. You are going to change a lot at Harvard, and most of those changes will happen your first year here. Some of them will be conscious decisions...
...stuck with the name I've been called my whole life. I don't regret the decision, mostly because I know that the change would have been completely symbolic anyway. Perhaps more importantly, though, it reminds me that despite the changes I've gone through in college, I'm fundamentally the same person I have always been. I couldn't tell you the day I finally accepted this limit, but I can tell you that the sooner you do, the sooner you will be able to take advantage of the great opportunities for personal growth college can offer...
...religiously followed all that advice I got last summer and neatly mapped out a plan. But I feel like I packed more into a year that many of my classmates did, just because I figured out my path as I went along. I survived, and this fall I'm blustering right back in through the gates and looking for new rocks to overturn...
...Jonelle M. Lonergan '02 is a reporter and staff writer for The Crimson...