Class Notes, July/August 2006
Monday September 04, 2006 Category: Archives Permanent Link
Greetings, Sixers! In anticipation of the 10th anniversary of donning our caps and gowns (I’m writing this in April; full Reunion coverage will appear in the Sept/Oct issue) and being ordained meritorious of a bachelor’s degree, and as a slight diversion from writing about marginal structural models (don’t get me started), this column is filled with some pre-reunion nostalgia. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet and my penchant for retaining every scrap of paper I’ve ever owned, this was a somewhat uncomplicated task.
First, I am lucky enough to still have in my possession a 1992 Cornell Facebook. And, somewhat gingerly, I took a look at the picture I submitted. Eesh. (Ben Farber and Christina Sun, if you’re out there, I hope you remember the Facebook story and you’ve let a slight chuckle erupt thinking about it.) Anyway, there I am, in all my freshscrubbed, adolescent, archetypal Eighties hair, black-and-white glory. Interests: photography and volleyball. Still true.
However,my two lovely SLR cameras are sitting in my linen closet gathering dust while my trusty digital camera does most of the heavy lifting these days. And I don’t think I’ve been in a darkroom since I shot for the yearbook sophomore year and spent some rainy Saturdays among the bottles of fixer and developer in the Straight. As for volleyball, my kneepads and quick set have been on temporary hiatus as I took up soccer for the last four years (do you know how TALL these undergrads are in California?). Moving along… Area of study: Pre-med. Ah, yes. That was before I realized that my true calling was sitting behind a monitor and looking at data. No, really, it is quite excellent. And I get to wear flip-flops to work.
Next, I am also fortunate enough to be in possession of a Class of 1996 Cornellian. Again,my picture is not worth a thousand words.What can I say… again, just not having a good hair day. The yearbook is filled with some beautiful shots of foliage … and pristine snow, which makes me sigh with longing but rejoice at the fact that Reunion is in June, not December.
I also remember that the Cornell Daily Sun published a list of “96 things to do before we graduated.” Unfortunately, I misplaced the list, but was fortunate enough to find the Class of 2004’s list posted on the Web (they have 100 things to do). Some of them were indicators that, indeed, times have changed. For example, Number 57: Get a mantra. Wow. These young whippersnappers are sophisticated. Most of my karmic chants in school involved repeating the steps of the Krebs cycle over and over silently to myself before a test. These next two made me laugh: Number 28: Tell yourself how brilliant you are; and Number 27: Tell yourself how stupid you are. These actually happened to me on the same day.
I remember a particularly bad snowstorm sophomore year, when my roommate Jean Lam MacInnes and I convinced ourselves that no, we wouldn’t hide out in our room and curse the inclement weather, but dedicate ourselves to furthering our education, despite snow and frigid temperatures. It took us about 45 minutes to get to class, the whole time muttering our… our mantra, I suppose: “We are TROOPERS!” OK, it’s not exactly tell yourself how brilliant you are, but it was some positive self-affirmation.
Anyway, I get into class (about 45 minutes late), and it was chock full of students who had managed to get there on time. It was then I invoked Number 27. Number 23: In the list of movies that are must-sees at Cornell Cinema, the Class of ‘04 left out (inadvertently, I’m sure) 1) Blade Runner, the Director’s Cut (fantastic) and 2) Say Anything– not so much for ’80s nostalgia as for the mention of our dear alma mater during an early soliloquy! Quite excellent to have a whole movie theater cheering. (You can check out the rest of the list here.)
The list did make me nostalgic for the things that are special and unique to Ithaca.Watching a sunset at Sunset Park. Traying down Libe Slope (or sending a mattress down Williams Street). Sitting in the library when you begin to realize that grades aren’t the most important thing … then you go out for a walk. OK, maybe that’s not unique to us, but at least we could walk to get an ice cream cone from Cornell’s very own cows. Pretty nifty.
Recently,my roommate’s younger cousin, who is applying to colleges in the fall, came out West to check out Berkeley and Stanford. Talking to her after her campus tour, I don’t know if she felt as excited as I felt on her behalf. I remember going through that process, and I remember being wowed by all that was in front of me when I drove up to Ithaca to see the campus for the first time. The four years we spent on the Hill were a gift—a time and place to think and learn and grow, and carve out our niches in the world. I’m looking forward to Reunion in order to remember some of those triumphs, along with some of the humbling bumps in the road. And of course, to eat Chariot pizza and Ruloff ‘s nachos.
Thank you for letting me share some of my stories with you. A full Reunion Report appears next time! v Sheryl Magzamen, SLM1@cornell.edu; Courtney Rubin, cbr1@cornell.edu.
