Opinion

LEUNG | The Finale, for Now

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We had four hours on the road before we had to officially call ourselves final semester seniors. The road was a safe haven — if you didn’t look at the hills of snow everywhere, spindly trees and the depressingly gray sky. Still, we were safe. “Would your freshman year self have thought you would be where you are now?”

I let that question linger in the car for a while my friend and I both thought about it. I could feel that we were both rewinding ourselves back to the first day we stepped into our respective dorms. Me, sweaty and wearing my sister’s striped T-shirt.

Columns

KANKANHALLI | Not About What’s Next

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The start of every new school year brings with it a rush of emotions: excitement, anticipation, motivation and a slew of other positively-connotated feelings. O-Week rewards us prematurely with waves of blissful ignorance and the chance to bask in ironic nonchalance at a rigorous institution. The shrewd among us manage to reign over Add/Drop so supremely that they might not have a real class for weeks (kudos!). At the advent of Senior Year, though, I find myself grappling with a different set of emotions -— impatience, urgency and agitation prime among them. At the heart of this agitation is the paradox of choice.

Columns

HU | Cut the Bullshit Already

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I almost quit The Sun two years ago. I was working on a story about Daniel Marshall ’15, who had organized several protests against a $350 health services fee that Cornell sprang on students in spring 2015. That same semester, CUPD began conducting a “criminal investigation” against Daniel and several other student activists; a CUPD investigator questioned Daniel about the protests and, when Daniel declined to answer, threatened him with felony charges. I’m no longer a reporter for The Sun, so, luckily, I don’t have to be “objective” anymore: this is a clear case of CUPD intimidating students in order to silence political protest and punish students for doing it. Yet, as frustrated with Cornell as I was over this, I was even more upset at my editors, who stopped this story from running for several days.

advice

JAIN | Freshman Advice

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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.

Columns

JAIN | Senior Year is a Weird Feeling, Man

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I have this weird habit of always putting the wrong contact in each of my eyes. When I’m taking my contacts out, I always put the left one in the left hand side of the container and the right in the right. The container is even labeled with an L and an R, but I always seem to mess it up in the morning. I could chalk it up to absentmindedness from morning exhaustion, but I’m lazy so I have no right to be tired in the mornings. Yesterday morning was the last first day of school of my life.

Columns

HICKMON | Dear Cornell…

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I cannot believe that it has been four years and that it is finally my turn to graduate. It feels like I have spent my whole life working towards and waiting for this moment. As a kid, I could not wait to be “grown.” As a highschooler, I dreamt of college everyday. Sometimes I still dream about college if I’m being honest. I wonder if I did the last four years “right.” Did I work hard enough?

Columns

BHOWMICK | Epilogue

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I have often dwelled on what my last column for The Sun would entail. Often, before falling asleep, I have constructed entire columns in my head. It’s a shame I did not write them down and gave into sleep instead. Because here I am, with so much to say and without a clue about where to begin. I guess this final edition of Abstruse Musings will be a brutally heartfelt and untempered reflection.

Columns

SUSSER | Ithaca State of Mind ft. Drake

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Last Thursday could have been an international holiday. I’d have called it Toronto appreciation day, but that wouldn’t give justice to the man who helped craft a sound that revolutionized hip-hop. All day, millions of listeners eagerly waited for what would surely be an album with no shortage of Canadian influenced summer bangers. Drake had been working on and promoting his fourth studio album Views for years; the public anticipation matched the hype. But when 11 o’clock rolled around and I sat down for my first ever “listening party,” I couldn’t help but feel shorted.

Columns

BHOWMICK | The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

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As a second semester senior, I am acutely aware of how I have finally made it to the last stretch of my Cornell experience after months of thinking, stressing, ruminating and writing about it. As someone who went to a boarding school, I like to think about how I have already been through the heartrending process of leaving life as I know it and moving on. Nevertheless, I also know that this time will be different simply because of how transformative the past four years have been. I have said it before, and I reiterate that these four years have been a lifetime and will determine what the rest of my life looks like in so many ways. To say the least, it is a staggering and paralyzing realization.