Once in a Lifetime

With much anticipation, Harvard College admitted 1,962 applicants last week, bringing to us the thrill of knowing who our future classmates will be. We congratulate our successful soon-to-be peers for a job well done, and look forward to seeing you on campus this fall.

Harvard is so much more than a school: A Harvard acceptance is literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Over the years, thousands of students have walked through the beautiful wrought iron of Johnston Gate and had deeply fulfilling experiences full of wonder, excitement, and promise. No one ever forgets the exact moment they received their Harvard acceptances—each a very different memory. Similarly, no one forgets the memories they create in their time here, as we make Harvard our own.

The opportunity to be a Harvard student is achieved with hard work, but also involves an extraordinary amount of luck. We urge our young peers to remember this, and take their acceptances with pride, as they well should, but also with grace and humility. Being humble isn’t just the right thing to do, both in your high schools and the communities in which you currently live, but it is a state of mind that prepares you for a lifetime of having gone to Harvard, with all the responsibilities and privileges it provides.

We also must never forget the power and importance of respect in our lives and the lives of others in the Harvard community. Harvard provides you the unparalleled opportunity to interact with and learn from people of completely different backgrounds and identities from around the world. Given this, we hope you choose to respect your classmates and peers on campus, and live your life with respectful thoughts and actions for them.

But most importantly, we hope you never forget where you are right now—to look around and fully realize the amazing nature of this moment, with all that lies ahead of you. Don’t merely overlook the last few weeks of high school with thoughts of the future—make the most of your senior year. All too often, we focus so much on our Harvard acceptances that we lose sight of enjoying the present. This is an incredibly unique moment in your life full of anticipation, excitement, and the promise of something new. Nevertheless, when you matriculate at college, enjoy that moment even more. Appreciate the ability to enjoy the close of one chapter of your life, and the sweet promise of beginning a new one.

We hope you have a well-deserved wonderful rest of your senior year, and again, we hope to see many of you at not only Visitas—the College’s visiting weekend—later this April, but also at the start of next year in September. We want you to share in the experiences we have had here—from the good, to the bad, to the once-in-a-lifetime.

This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.