Recently, a lot of my friends have been tossing around the “one-half” idea. We’re sophomores (read: we’re old). Two years into college and we feel old.
No, maybe it’s not age. Maybe we just feel like we know this place. For almost two years, we have grown and Yale has grown. Exciting things are happening on campus: a new batch of Yale College Council Officers will be elected in the next few days, Yale will open a brand new college in Singapore in 2013, and two new residential colleges will open their doors to students in 2015. Yale is in motion.
But we are in motion, too! Exciting things are happening in our lives as sophomores! We are on the verge of declaring majors, starting to find some sort of direction, settled into our residential colleges, established citizens the New Haven community, and members of something larger than ourselves. Finally. We feel it: we feel like we, in some shape or form, embody what is Yale.
And then I hear this number: one-half. It sounds incomplete. It sounds fragmented. Yet, there is a resounding beauty in the fact that there is something yet to be fulfilled.
One-half (noun): The part of the Yale experience that we, as sophomores, have almost completed.
No, no, no. Let’s take a step back, friends.
One-half (noun): The part of the Yale experience that we, as sophomores, have left to enjoy, to savor, to cherish. The part of the Yale experience that we have left to blossom as individuals, to embrace all that is offered here in this community, to build friendships that will last far, far outside the walls of these castle-like residential colleges. One-half cannot capture what will happen in two full years of exploration, of challenge, and of fun.
I truly believe–deep down in this heart that has only been through “one-half” of the Yale experience–that this place has changed me: I have grown here. But “one-half” is not a descriptor that even begins to describe how much I will grow in my upcoming two years at Yale. Let’s not forget about the second half.