From Athens to Sparta

Exactly one year ago, I ran the Boston Marathon. Today, I took my oath to become an intelligence officer in the United States Navy.

It’s often said that in works of fiction, action reveals character. But, much as I like to imagine myself as the protagonist in some fantastic rom-com, sci-fi-suspense-thriller, the same cannot be said of real life. It is the character of an action that reveals character. In other words, how one makes big decisions makes all the difference. The thoughts and conversations that led up to my decision to join the military are worth consideration for many other Harvard students.

I joined for many reasons, not least of which were the events I witnessed in Boston one year ago. We talk a lot about privilege at Harvard, but some privileges are more oftenoverlooked than others. In the United States we all share in our relative freedom and safety, but it is easy to forget them in the absence of a major disruption of these privileges, especially when someone else is picking up the check.

It’s easy to pay lip service to grand platitudes about the honor of military service, but sometimes the details worry me. I’ll miss the snooze button on my alarm, my long hair,and being able to sleep on an unmoving flat surface. But my circadian rhythm will adapt, my hair will grow back, and I’ll get my sea legs. Sometimes the little things encourage me. I’m going to wear the uniform, read “Moby Dick” on an aircraft carrier, and constantly make seaman puns. Also I have it on good authority that service members pay discount price at Disney World.

Honestly, the difficulty of getting into Harvard and running marathons did not compare to enormity of signing on that dotted line.

I’m a vegetarian from Oakland, California, a Harvard student, and I write for On Harvard Time. I don’t exactly fit the mold of most officers in the military. I can’t make a bed worth a darn; I can be pig-headed and selfish. However these are not excuses to avoid the military,but motivations to join. There are all kinds of lessons to be learned after graduation.

Sometimes I picture graduating from Harvard to become a naval intelligence officer as leaving Athens for Sparta. But in so many ways being an officer in the military and being a student at Harvard are similar.

The military, like Harvard, has its fair share of songs, Latin mottos, crests, and distinctive jargon. Within the five branches of the military, the Navy has a longstanding gentleman’s rivalry with the Army, culminating in a football game familiarly referred to as “The Game.” You hear a similar intake of breath when you inform someone you’ve enlisted in the military or enrolled at Harvard. Though, to be sure, it’s true the phrase “dropping the H-bomb” has a slightly different meaning in the military. However, both Harvard and the military attract international attention with the ways they wield their resources and influence.

The Navy and Harvard, though both proud emblems of American culture, precede the existence of the United States. Both love to number the U.S. presidents they can claim as veterans or alumni. Finally, it’s important to clarify that as an officer,just as a Harvard student,you are in the elite.Officer applicants face an admissions rate that rivals that of many Ivy Leagues.

Most importantly, both institutions unite people from all walks of life through mutual experience. Whether it’s surviving boot camp or surviving CS50, there is a tremendous camaraderie that comes from the experience of hardship. This is camaraderie undiminished by the diaspora following graduation.

I had heard the stories of the brave men and women who enlisted September 12, 2001. Yet I realize now that cut off from those stories are the sacrifices, the uncertainties, the moments of indecision, and the frantic Google searches in the twilight hours that they had to first overcome.

I will be running the marathon again this Monday as student and future officer, with my Harvard career behind me and my military career ahead.What will get me to the finish line is the resolve that got me to the starting line—the same commitment that got me to write my name on the dotted line.

Sarah R. Siskind ’14 is a government concentrator in Adams House.