Editor's Note

Dear reader, We bring you this final closeout of the semester in the midst of an attack by the dreaded army (read: finals) that was hiding inside the Trojan Horse (read: reading period). But fear not. In this issue, we come to you with true gifts, devoid of any nefarious surprises. In this final issue, our insightful endpaper writer JYX reminds us to appreciate the moment. Her central inquiry was provoked in large part by the perceptive Bo-Mi Choi, who pointed out to Xu’s class one fateful day — “You all worked so hard to get here, to Harvard. And now that you’re here, all you want to do is leave.” Bo-Mi Choi also happens to be the subject of one of this week’s 15Qs. Sitting down with the brilliant SG, Choi talks institutional dysfunction, learning to be zen, moving on from Harvard, and how she contemplates ethical decisions — including her own choice to leave. Also facing institutional dysfunction and a difficult Harvard-related decision are the undergraduate course assistants whose participation on the picket line (or lack thereof) is the subject of UBP and TV’s strike report. Maybe it is just that time of the year (or era of the world) but contemplative reflections fill the rest of this issue’s pages. AS and JES explore what it means to grow old in a city defined by youth. Through compassionate and descriptive reporting, these writers consider what it takes to thrive at every stage of life. A mile down Mass. Ave., CJ meets a few of these senior citizens, manning the final days of a stationary shop left behind by a recently deceased friend. Elsewhere in Cambridge, SBC skillfully profiles Jerold Kayden, a man who — from Juilliard to Harvard, Michael Jackson roadie to housing advocate — has lived many lives. Then in AF’s introspection, she places us inside the feeling of having many lives by tracing the artifacts of home that stay the same, even as she grows up. AWS takes on life, too, asking whether the flesh-and-blood author still matters in the age of acceptable AI prose. TFB and MMN also consider how AI is affecting human experience through a case study of a data center in Lowell, Massachusetts. But amid a particularly contemplative — and in some cases, even morose — set of stories, joy still surfaces. In our first audio 15Q, CSB’s conversation with Grace Mariappan brings her to “happy tears.” Meanwhile, CY shares a first-person report on the unexpected warmth of Harvard’s American Sign Language program, and CEB and VIO look into a program that is known for its lack of warmth — and the life-changing experience it provides. In the so-called humor magazine’s two appearances in this issue, WJM takes us on a zig zagging journey to find Kit Ketlle, and HG (in her magazine debut) makes us giggle with our first and only rhyming Venn diagram of the semester: “The Lampoon v. Mission to the Moon.” HGL similarly embraces the Sorrento-Square-spirit — that everything might not be *that* serious — in the final installment of his “Gastrocosm” column about the universe of processed food. And tackling the LITERAL universe this week, MBF and SL talked with composer David R. Ibbett and the astrophysicists he works closely with in his attempts to translate astronomical bodies like black holes into sound. Meanwhile, VIO and CEB bring us back down to earth and into our own bodies, exploring the universes created by the somewhat bizarre and undeniably intense Sensory Ethnography Lab. Finally, WJM leaves us with much to reflect on. If we are to extend JYX’s metaphor – that we are fish looking for the beautiful, blue, ocean, not realizing we are already in it – then WJM importantly reminds us that we also know how to swim. Good luck on your finals. You’ve all got this. And go pick up an AI glossy. AJBS + KJK