My circuitous path to Cornell included two-year stops at the U.S. Naval Academy and the Island of Borneo, where I served as a Mormon missionary. My cocktail hour inquisitors often focus their questions on the discipline and adventure of that period in my life. They want to explore the differences between Cornell and life in uniform — military or priestly. What was basic training like? How about the guns? Did you meet a headhunter? (In order: awful, awesome and I think so, but Borneo is the same as America in at least one way … you don’t just ask a guy if he’s a killer.)

I attended exactly three films put on by Cornell Cinema last year. In descending order of theater packedness: The Dark Knight; Waltz With Bashir; L’Enfant Sauvage. The first of these films was, well, awesome — as in the biblical sense of the word (not the contemporary, frater-natural lexicon). Waltz With Bashir was gripping — as in this graphic-novel looking thing gripped my throat and coerced me into caring about a massacre I had never heard of. L’Enfant Sauvage was boring — as in I was bored. The 18th Century frog doctor and his feral friend left me squirming in my seat before the Twizzlers and popcorn were all eaten.

If you didn’t see the homecoming parade, you’re not the only one. The crowd was anemic for reasons ranging from weather to unawareness. The procession, on the other hand, was as hearty as they come. In tow were 25 student groups displaying, for Cornell, unusual vigor and costume coordination.

The time is ripe to talk about Teach For America. A couple of weeks ago TFA held an on-campus information session. The photos, the data, the stories … the whole thing made me want to stand up and salute something, anything, with a lone tear running down my cheek. On Monday night, I attended an address by Michelle Rhee ’92, D.C. School Chancellor and former Baltimore TFA corps member. Despite the September info-session’s plentiful pizza and pictures, Rhee won the contest for most inspiring hour — ever. She’s amazing, but more on that later.

College students are more likely to favor sweeping healthcare reform than just about any other group. Sure, we quibble over the finer points of a single payer system versus public-private competition. But common to the editorials and classroom rants of our generation are tall tales of human rights and societal obligations. We have a sense that healthcare is intertwined with moral imperatives. We have a sense that “change” is available, that the path toward nationalized healthcare and a healthy nation is known, if only in need of some clearing.