Hong Kong

After completing my citation in French sophomore year, I knew that I wanted to pick up just one more foreign language before I graduated. Despite having long had an interest in Japanese and Japanese history, the distance from Dunster House to Northwest Labs where Japanese courses are typically held on campus was just great enough to dissuade me from committing to a 9 a.m. class that met five times a week. Unexpectedly, and abruptly, the pandemic-necessitated shift to online learning removed this constraint. By simply clicking into the same Zoom meeting every day, I was able to learn about Japanese customs and dissect short stories with a group of warm, motivated classmates who have all become good friends. Together, we built a pandemic-era community that helped sustain me through an academic year like none other.

I miss the warm hugs and short, 10-minute conversations you might share with an old friend from a first-year seminar or even pre-orientation as you find yourselves in the basement of Memorial Hall lining up for Fly-By together. These are also the kinds of interactions that have been the hardest to replicate in our virtual social world of late.

When conditions improve and circumstances allow, I look forward to returning to reading rooms and perhaps even having the opportunity to engage with some of the primary sources that I wish I could have accessed as I was finishing my thesis earlier this semester. Of course, when international travel permits, I am also incredibly excited at the prospect of gathering offline with friends I have not been able to see these past 15 months or so.

Follow this link:
The cap (and gown) on a most unusual senior year - Harvard Gazette