The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/author/akshayjain/)
This is my last column for The Cornell Daily Sun and at first I wasn’t too sure what to write. As a graduating senior, I could do something really sappy and look back at my favorite Cornell memories. I could list out my biggest regrets about my four years here. I could also just treat this like any other column. Ultimately, I decided to do a bit of each of the three. Here’s some advice to the Cornell class of 2021.
Being at college, and more specifically at Cornell, every birthday has been given a certain importance. Your 19th is the first birthday away from your family and the last year of your teenage life. Your 20th is the first birthday of your twenties and likely your first birthday living off-campus, unless you live on West, in which case your 20th can be an opportunity to go crazy at the ice cream bar at the Keeton dining hall or whatever. Your 21st is a big one because you can finally pay $21 at Rulloff’s for a pitcher that tastes like Keystone Ice with a hint of orange zest. Even if you’re not big on birthdays, we can all agree that these birthdays inherently carry some importance.
I left my first day of swim thinking it was going to be the worst class I had ever taken at Cornell. It was at 7:45 p.m. twice a week all the way on North Campus and I was no fish in the water. But in all honesty, swim has quickly become a class I look forward to. It turns out my friends might have been right. Swimming wasn’t all that bad.
The Academy Awards were this past Sunday night and they called the wrong name out for the Best Picture award or something. I’m not totally sure what happened, but probably don’t work for PwC after you graduate. Award shows always leave me wanting to watch all the nominated movies I haven’t heard of. I’m not sure what Hell or High Water is about, but I’d love to figure that out. I’m not totally sure who Isabelle Huppert is, but I’m sure she had a moving performance in Elle.
This past Friday, hypebeasts all around the world (including myself) collectively celebrated the much-anticipated release of Migos’ latest album, Culture. I could sit here and type up a description of Migos, but I’m sure you already have an idea. They bring life to your pregames and are probably the reason dabbing is still kind of cool. As their album title suggests, Migos have created a new culture in hip-hop and they’ll be the first to tell you that. Practically every major rapper has adapted the Migos flow in some way or another, but this column isn’t about how formally interesting Migos’ music is.
I’ve made it a habit of putting falsely serious titles on columns that are pretty much six paragraph jokes. My hope is always that some sentimental person out there clicks on the column hoping to shed an afternoon tear, but really just walks away semi-amused or at least somewhat confused. I’m excited to someday write the titles to articles your mom shares on Facebook. You won’t believe what I’ll come up with. But to be honest, I’m tired of all of this.
Cornell has given many students coming from very different parts of the world an amazing chance to meet different people from diverse areas. I never thought I’d meet so many people from exotic locales such as Westchester and Long Island. In all seriousness though, being at Cornell has exposed me to many students from all around the continental U.S. as well as many international students from countries the average American would probably struggle to locate on a map. All these students bring their distinct experiences and characteristics with them — a welcoming thought for all students who feel they may not fit the mold of the traditional Cornellian. While at times Cornell can feel like the whitest place on earth, every now and then you’ll see a fellow non-white person or someone with an accent and feel a little more comfortable with the school you chose to go to.
I had a pretty normal childhood. I never learned to swim or ride a bike or throw a curveball (okay maybe I didn’t have a totally normal childhood), but I did pretty much everything else and remember almost always having a good time. I had my close circle of friends from school and around the neighborhood, my family was supportive and I was too young to realize I was ugly. Life was good. Among the many fun parts of my childhood, such as racing Razor scooters playing and driveway basketball, very few compare to staying inside on my family computer messaging friends I lived next door to.
I’ve been spending a fair amount of time in the Green Dragon lately. If you’re unfamiliar with this on campus café, it’s located under Sibley and is where all the ~cool kids~ hang out. By cool, I don’t mean Cornell cool. These people don’t talk signing bonuses and bottom lines, whatever those two things are. Located where the fine arts building meets the architecture building, the Green Dragon embodies all that is interesting about Cornell.
It’s been about a month since we all came back to Ithaca and, naturally, everyone has begun to contract diseases from one another. Such is life on the hill, or whatever administration colloquially refers to campus as. From class to class, everyone seems to either be wheezing or coughing — so much so that one of my professors actually stopped class to make sure he wasn’t hearing things. Regardless, everyone is gross and I hate it here, but that has nothing to do with flu season. Some surprising benefits can be found during this wheezy period at Cornell.