Why Harvard-Yale makes me thankful.
At this point in the semester, there’s a lot to be thankful for and not just because Thanksgiving Break is coming up. With Harvard-Yale this weekend and only a few more weeks before winter break, here are some of the things I’m most thankful for:
1. That the only time I have to go to Yale is every other year for “Harvard-Yale”
Showing up decked out in Harvard gear, of course. I’ve always looked better in Crimson anyways. It’s nice getting away from Harvard’s classic red brick and busy campus life near the Harvard Square station to appreciate some gothic architecture in The Middle of Nowhere, Connecticut.
2. Sister houses
While we might joke that Yale is kind of the Jan Brady to our Marsha Brady, Yalies don’t have any animosity when it comes to providing an inflatable mattress for Harvardians to pass out on for the weekend.
3. That people stop complaining about how far away the quad is when they get to Yale.
After waiting all week and paying for bus tickets, students have over two hours to remember why they love Harvard on the way to Yale. Meanwhile, the Quad-Yard shuttle comes every ten minutes instead of every other year…
4. That Yale took the Christakises off of Harvard’s hands.
Yale couldn’t quite handle the ‘Veritas’ that they took from Harvard, either… The pformer Pfoho housemasters recently were caught up in an email scandal that ended in Silliman* students protesting and gaining national press coverage.
*Also thankful that our worst dorm name is Hurlbut
5. How great clubs are at making puns at Yale’s expense.
Yuck Fale will never get old, but it’s like a holiday seeing all the ways Harvard students make fun of Yale. While Harvard students come from a variety of different backgrounds and have a vast array of interests, we can all agree that Yale sucks.
6. That the sophomore slump implies it only lasts for part of sophomore year
Fingers crossed I get out lucky like I did with the Freshman Fifteen*.
*No one said anything about Freshman Summer Fifteen
7. That the upperclassmen houses have their own gyms after Thanksgiving dinner
Not that I plan on using it but it’s nice to know that I could.
8. How Harvard’s break for Thanksgiving conveniently falls on the week after Harvard-Yale.
Because we all need extra time recovery time to study for all the finals, midterms, unit papers, and life we put off for the weekend. After we get out of the inevitable food coma, that is.
9. When Harvard students actually try to understand football for a weekend.
Even though the football game isn’t what Harvard-Yale is really about. If Yale got a point every time someone asked about the rules for football, maybe they’d win for once.
10. How much apparel I can buy that has Harvard’s logo or crimson on it.
Because we all know going to the game without at least three layers of clothing on is an even worse life decision than not making it to the game because you’re still sleeping off the night before. When people say they wish they could freeze time, they really don’t mean becoming frostbitten.
11. …and all the free crimson gear Harvard students get right before the game.
As a broke college student, free is my favorite type of everything right next to anything Harvard-related. From the gloves conducive to texting (because if you aren’t making statuses about Harvard-Yale, are you really living it?) to shirts, there’s really no excuse to not be fully dressed-up in school colors. It’s also important to remember that as much as we say hell will freeze over before Yale wins again, it’s going to be so cold you’ll start to reconsider the choice of words.
12. Friends who live closer to campus than I do.
During Thanksgiving break, Harvard clears out faster than Yalies do after losing the game. Having friends closer to campus is great and offers the chance to get off campus and rejoin civilization with the perks of sleeping in a real bed again and having dinner that doesn’t make you regret not splurging on Panera for once.
So before you board the buses to Yale, remember to bring all your Crimson pride and think about all the things you are thankful for.
Hunter Richards ’18 (hrichards@college.harvard.edu) is also thankful for #solidaritY.