Dear Senior Paige and Tilly,
Although some days seemed to drag on forever, it feels just like yesterday that we were banging on the door of our freshman dorms, not realizing we had to pick up our keys from Yard Ops. All of a sudden, we were returning those same keys, rooms empty once more.
While the year was filled with many successes, it also made us realize that Harvard offers so much that we have yet to embrace. This checklist could really go on forever, but we chose to delve into what we believed to be the nine critical themes of making the most out of our unique undergraduate experience. In three years, we hope to look back on our years at the College with pride in knowing we put ourselves out there and strived to make ourselves better. And while college looks different for everyone, maybe these goals might inspire you, too.
Reflecting on Freshman Year
Looking back on our first year at Harvard already feels oddly nostalgic. Arriving on campus was like stepping into a new world—one filled with driven, curious, and passionate people who reminded us of why we came here in the first place. Freshman year had many enjoyable moments, but also moments of uncertainty and challenge. At times, the novelty wore off and college life became extremely intense and competitive. Impostor syndrome crept in and we were forced to confront the daunting feeling of three more years of late nights studying, being away from home, and working till exhaustion. It seemed like an impossible feat.
But when we’re seniors, we hope we’ll remember these trials fondly—all of our embarrassing stories and rocky mistakes that only a freshman makes at Harvard (trust us, there are plenty). It wouldn’t be our first year without them. Freshman year isn’t about perfection—it’s about meeting new people, acclimating to college life, and understanding all the unique aspects Harvard has to offer. As our sophomore year looms, we hope to take on some important challenges that we hope our senior selves will master and bask in.
Making Even More Friendships
While we should be most thankful for Harvard’s world-renowned education and plethora of networking opportunities, instead, we are most grateful to this school for giving us friendships that will last well beyond our time in Cambridge. We hit the friend lottery.
But as much as we love them, we don’t want comfort to turn into complacency. When we read this article senior year, our hope is that we did not succumb to the temptation of safety for the next three years, but instead challenged ourselves to form new connections. Undoubtedly, it is important to cherish the people in your life. And while we look forward to growing alongside the people we experienced freshman year with, learning from our diverse cohort of peers on campus is more valuable than a lecture ever will be.
So when we are 22 (ew, weird), we still plan on having wine nights with our core five friends and inviting them over for Thanksgiving. But we also want to get coffee with the girls in our sections who have great style or exchange more than just Sorry with the boys in Berg we accidentally bump into. We hope we don’t put ourselves in a box. Harvard’s full of the most extraordinary people we haven’t met yet, and we want to keep building relationships with them.
Embracing House Life
While freshman year means waking up in Harvard Yard—or, if you’re extra lucky, Pennypacker Hall—becoming a sophomore brings something new: House life. By senior year, we hope we’ve fully immersed ourselves in the Quad and taken advantage of all the resources and opportunities that come from its community. The separation between freshmen and upperclassmen at Harvard is more divisive than many realize, and House life will help us to integrate, introducing us to more people from different years and areas of Harvard.
It’s already becoming a place of real comfort—just the mere idea of living in the same place for the next three years feels secure. We have the chance to set foundations and grow into a house. Though our initial reaction to the big, red, floppy fish stumbling into our room at 8:50 a.m. on Housing Day wasn’t one full of joy and relief, Quad life will hopefully bring us excitement, community, and fulfillment.
Opening Up About Homesickness
This Harvard freshman class is the most diverse in history, which is a privilege. However, this comes with challenges, as so many of us flew from home to a new state, country, or even continent to continue our education, with no turning back.
Cambridge offers a plethora of cozy restaurants, shops, parks—everything that a neighborhood needs to feel like home. But waking up next to a stranger and getting lost on the way to class are merely more reminders that you’ve been uprooted from your home to the gates of Harvard Yard. There is a beauty to a fresh start, but also a desire for a home-cooked meal or a motherly hug that lingers throughout freshman year.
It is important that, in these times, we talk about these feelings. We relate to our peers in the emotional challenges that come with being far from home. We FaceTime the people that we miss and send texts of gratitude. There is no cure for homesickness, but it becomes more manageable when it is not handled in solitude.
Living Out College Traditions
Some of the first things you hear about, even before you start your first year at Harvard, are the College’s wonderful traditions. Whilst some must not be mentioned, we have found ourselves at the end of our first year having not completed as many as we initially planned. We want to make sure that by the time our senior year comes around, we will be nostalgically reflecting on our cold plunges in the river or our special visits to see John Harvard. In that moment, we can wholeheartedly say we are true Harvard students. Who knows, maybe we will have created some of our own.
Trying All the Food
It might sound trivial, but food is a college experience. Especially when your dinners mostly consist of french fries, Golden Grahams mixed with Frosted Flakes, and a twist of froyo. We were overwhelmed walking into Berg at first, mostly because we didn’t know how to build a real meal. Unfortunately, this fear never really went away.
Some of our friends walk out with bowls that look like they’re from Cava. Forget portraits, still-lifes, or abstracts, HUDS bowl-making is an art. And it is one we pray our senior selves have mastered.
Choosing Passion Over Pressure
This section may feel a bit direct, but let’s be honest—it applies to more than our senior selves. Anyways, here we go.
If you’re reading this in 2026, 2027, or 2028, and prepping for a private equity internship in NYC, close the tab. Have ChatGPT craft an email to the hiring manager to give your spot to someone else. You hate numbers and all things business, and you spent all of the first semester kicking yourself for not understanding anything Jason Furman said in Econ 10A.
And while wearing trendy pantsuits and outperforming the men who believe corporate America is not meant for women does sound appealing, working into the morning, methodically, does not. You are not weak for wanting your passions to become a profession. For wanting to change the criminal justice system or help those with mental disorders, or for valuing being a mother over any job at all. Lead with your heart, because you have the brain to make any of your interests worthwhile.
Going Out (Even After 10:30 p.m.)
At Harvard, it’s easy to feel 30 at 20—everyone’s hustling, everyone’s booked, and everyone’s burnt out. But we hope we will not have let that mindset steal our youth. It feels like we accomplish more in a day than others do in a week. And while this is nothing to complain about, a night of studying isn’t always worth missing a Hong Kong karaoke night. On our 21st birthdays, we do not want the novelty of “going out” to have disappeared because we’re convinced that we are above the social scene.
As we get older, we, contrarily, want to get more youthful, fun, and free. When we are seniors on campus, we plan on acting the most foolish. There is a freedom in undergraduate life that is not as apparent in the “real world.” So for the next three years, we’ll never be the first ones to leave a mixer, to suggest going to Joe’s instead of Ubering into Boston, or to suggest staying in at all. If we are home before midnight on a Saturday night in the spring, we hope it’s because we were dragged out by our concerned friends.
Finding Ourselves
Before college, we thought we had a pretty good idea of who we were. Our goals were simple: complete four years here, get a Harvard degree, have some fun along the way, and boom! We’d be out in the world, headstrong and decisive about who we were. Harvard was just supposed to add the polish. Instead, it’s made us ask deeper questions.
We’ve realized that growing up isn’t just about becoming more accomplished—it’s about becoming more us. We want our senior selves to graduate feeling truly confident and happy in the people we are, no matter what that means. We want to fight off the nightmare that is “Imposter Syndrome” once and for all. At the end of the day, no one will pay attention to the awkward or embarrassing things we do on a daily basis, because how we treated others—and how we treated ourselves—will have mattered the most.
Love,
Freshmen Paige and Tilly
Paige Cornelius ’28 (paigecornelius@college.harvard.edu) and Tilly Butterworth ’28 (mbutterworth@college.harvard.edu) will hopefully have stayed true to these goals by the time they are seniors.