Get Your Play On

In a month that started out with threats for snow, things are sure looking up. The sun is shining, midterms are mostly over, and everyone is more physically attractive than they were two weeks ago. In light of studies that report undergrads at Harvard may not enjoy themselves as much as their counterparts at other schools, I suggest we rethink what we’re doing here.

Students need to get out of their rooms (and I’m not talking about going to that section you’ve been skipping for three weeks). I mean throwing a frisbee, playing intramurals, or if you absolutely can’t get away from your studies, reading by the river. Your cramped single is a social prison (especially if you live in Mather)—get out of it!

Once you do get out, you may have difficulty figuring out what to do; this is normal. I know everyone who has fulfilled his or her Expos requirement feels like his or her imaginative powers have been stifled, if not outright devastated, so I’ve taken the liberty of offering a few tips to students who aren’t sure what to do when they escape their boxes (organized by concentration).

I think that all the biochem concentrators should go outside for a day. There’s a whole world outside of mitosis that is passing you by. In fact, you can go out into the real world and find a natural occurrence of mitosis! I promise it’s better than whatever is in your textbook.

Psychology concentrators can conduct a survey outside of the Science Center about the type of people who are actually affected by the groups screaming at them to divest from Dunkin Donuts while listening to Britney Spears on someone’s computer speakers. Statistics concentrators can help the psych students out with this one.

If you’re a philosophy concentrator, team up with someone studying classics. Neither of you will be expected to say anything contemporary, but the fact that you’re saying something, anything, to another person is a big start towards reconnecting with the rest of the world.

Students of economics, I have some bad news for you: economics isn’t a real science. When you get over that and realize that it’s your personality that’s going to land you that i-banking cubicle-slave job you’re after, you’ll be a lot better off. In the meantime, consider this opportunity-cost: spending four hours on your problem set and getting a B, or spending one hour on your problem set, finding a date for Saturday night, and still getting a B. Ah, the bell-curve.

For computer science concentrators, there is hope among you who have laptops. Wireless is your friend: go play with it.

Social studies concentrators should know what to do—be social, and/or practice Marxism.

Finally, to my fellow gov jocks: you probably aren’t studying anyway, but there are more creative ways than Halo 2 to spend the time between lunch and practice. Wait, what am I saying? Keep playing Halo.

There is a concentration of fascinating people here. At no other time in our lives will we be around such a diversely brilliant group of people. If you’re not happy with your undergraduate experience, you need to go outside and utilize Harvard’s best resource: its students.

Brendan D. B. Hodge ’07, a Crimson editorial comper, is a government concentrator in Cabot House.In a month that started out with threats for snow, things are sure looking up. The sun is shining, midterms are mostly over, and everyone is more physically attractive than they were two weeks ago. In light of studies that report undergrads at Harvard may not enjoy themselves as much as their counterparts at other schools, I suggest we rethink what we’re doing here.

Students need to get out of their rooms (and I’m not talking about going to that section you’ve been skipping for three weeks). I mean throwing a frisbee, playing intramurals, or if you absolutely can’t get away from your studies, reading by the river. Your cramped single is a social prison (especially if you live in Mather)—get out of it!

Once you do get out, you may have difficulty figuring out what to do; this is normal. I know everyone who has fulfilled his or her Expos requirement feels like his or her imaginative powers have been stifled, if not outright devastated, so I’ve taken the liberty of offering a few tips to students who aren’t sure what to do when they escape their boxes (organized by concentration).

I think that all the biochem concentrators should go outside for a day. There’s a whole world outside of mitosis that is passing you by. In fact, you can go out into the real world and find a natural occurrence of mitosis! I promise it’s better than whatever is in your textbook.

Psychology concentrators can conduct a survey outside of the Science Center about the type of people who are actually affected by the groups screaming at them to divest from Dunkin Donuts while listening to Britney Spears on someone’s computer speakers. Statistics concentrators can help the psych students out with this one.

If you’re a philosophy concentrator, team up with someone studying classics. Neither of you will be expected to say anything contemporary, but the fact that you’re saying something, anything, to another person is a big start towards reconnecting with the rest of the world.

Students of economics, I have some bad news for you: economics isn’t a real science. When you get over that and realize that it’s your personality that’s going to land you that i-banking cubicle-slave job you’re after, you’ll be a lot better off. In the meantime, consider this opportunity-cost: spending four hours on your problem set and getting a B, or spending one hour on your problem set, finding a date for Saturday night, and still getting a B. Ah, the bell-curve.

For computer science concentrators, there is hope among you who have laptops. Wireless is your friend: go play with it.

Social studies concentrators should know what to do—be social, and/or practice Marxism.

Finally, to my fellow gov jocks: you probably aren’t studying anyway, but there are more creative ways than Halo 2 to spend the time between lunch and practice. Wait, what am I saying? Keep playing Halo.

There is a concentration of fascinating people here. At no other time in our lives will we be around such a diversely brilliant group of people. If you’re not happy with your undergraduate experience, you need to go outside and utilize Harvard’s best resource: its students.

Brendan D. B. Hodge ’07, a Crimson editorial comper, is a government concentrator in Cabot House.