Nostalgia Indulged

A good way to procrastinate once you hit senior spring is to sit around with your friends and reminisce. Where you once just surfed the web or arranged your CD's in reverse alphabetical order instead of writing that term paper, you now have almost four years worth of memories to relive, and though nostalgia is a little self-indulgent, it's more than occasionally necessary. Two years ago almost to this very day, I wrote a nostalgic column, which I now realize that as a sophomore I had no business writing. I was concerned that I had completed almost half my Harvard experience, and after hosting several pre-frosh for the weekend, I felt old. I wrote, "Their enthusiasm for all things new, like the ice cream bash and their first a cappella jam of thousands to come seemed this year more alien to me as a jaded sophomore. I started waxing wistfully about the passing years...."

Clearly, I had no idea what I was talking about. Some strict editor should have stopped me. And while I have only slightly more of an idea of what I'm talking about two years later, at least I have the aura, however mistaken, of senior wisdom around me. This weekend is pre-frosh weekend for the Class of 2004, so I've been self-indulgent with the hope of helping others and compiled a list, with the help of friends, of Things to Do at Harvard as an Undergraduate. For those who make the (right) decision to come to Cambridge next fall, for those about to leave the banks of the Charles, and for all of us in between, this list might provide some inspiration the next time you're looking to procrastinate:

In the fall...

Go to dinner at 5. Leave at 7:30.

Take walks around the Yard.

Go to a Red Sox game.

Learn to navigate in UNIX.

Put a jack-o-lantern on the head of the John Harvard statue.

Dress up for the Adams Masquerade.

Go to the top of William James Hall and check out the view.

Attend the Head of the Charles.

Miss the last train back from MIT and walk from Commonwealth Ave. to Harvard Square.

Drive down to New Haven for The Game and rush the field when we win.

Go to the 80s dance. Go again in the spring.

In the winter....

Run Primal Scream. Run again in the spring.

Have a snowball fight in the Yard.

See "The Nutcracker" and dance on the Common on your way home.

Go to First Night in Boston.

Visit friends at other schools.

Invite your friends from other schools to visit you.

Sled down Widener steps.

Build a snowperson in your House courtyard.

In the spring...

Walk to Porter Square. Don't take the T back.

Row House crew.

Cheer at the Boston Marathon. Run it if you dare.

Visit the observatory atop Weld Hall.

Play Ultimate Frisbee in the rain.

Take the T to the end of a line. If it's the Red Line, get out at Columbia Point and go to the JFK Library and Museum.

Have a party in your room.

Jump on the commuter rail and go to Rockport. Have clam chowder.

Go to a Red Sox game.

In the summer...

Spend a summer here.

Go to the KISS 108 concert.

Celebrate the Fourth of July at the Esplanade.

Have a picnic on the football field.

Go to a Red Sox game.

Spend a summer far, far away.

Anytime...

Do an activity that you love.

Support a cause you believe in.

Make a scene at an a cappella jam.

Go for Sunday afternoon walks with your best friend.

Eat dinner in the North End.

Sit on Widener steps in the middle of the night.

Take a class that meets in Sanders.

Take a class with fewer than 10 people in it (it probably won't meet in Sanders).

Take a class in a subject area you know nothing about.

Go to Bartley's.

Visit all the Harvard museums.

Sneak into the back of Adams dining hall.

Walk the Freedom Trail.

Be kicked out of Tommy's at 3 a.m.

Go clubbing in Boston.

Take a road-trip and listen to good music.

Visit your friends in the Quad.

Visit your friends on the River.

Take lots of pictures.

Stand in awe of your friends' achievements.

Spend time by or on the Charles.

Go to at least one game for as many Harvard sports teams as you can.

Get student rush tickets for a play in Boston.

Make a mix tape every year.

Stay up all night for no reason.

Stay up all night for a good reason.

Finally, host pre-frosh. If you love it here, tell them why. If you don't, tell them that too. Wax nostalgic if you must (and we all do sometimes), but then go out and do something you'll enjoy and remember. It's college, after all, and the years do pass quickly.

Susannah B. Tobin '00 is a classics concentrator in Lowell House. Her column appears on alternate Thursdays.