Since I had my last sections and lectures of the semester today, I feel totally free to reveal the following:

* Some people check their email during lecture. I do that too. But also, I cyber, which is why I have that creepy smile on my face.

* When I get really engrossed in a book and the professor directs us to a selection in it, I will often spend lecture finishing the book instead of paying attention to the professor. This is possibly the geekiest form of distraction ever.

* Section is fantastic because there’s such a diverse selection of guys I can fantasize about. Like the one who barges in fifteen minutes late every week from practice all panting and sweaty; or the cute one who makes cute points in his cute accent; or the stuttering, German philosophy-citing one who definitely thinks he’s smarter than the TF. Oh, and the hot TF. I definitely fantasize about him too.

* I know you judge me for my pink laptop but I don’t give a damn, fuckers. It’s not my fault you’re a conformist.

* If I seriously have no idea what is going on in a course, I purposely choose a seat outside the line of a TF’s vision and lock my eyes to the coursebook. No one ever really gets called on unless they want to speak, but I do this just in case I actually land in a section in which there are no overeager handraisers. Who am I kidding? There’s always a Harvard kid who gets jittery if he hasn’t heard his own voice in the past five minutes.

* See me furiously typing away as the prof covers a coup d’etat, two wars, and a crusade in one hour? That shit is boring. I’m obviously working on my memoir.

Of course, seeing as how I’m a junior, I’ll be in classes again in four months. So maybe I shouldn’t have written this. Oh well, what do I know about being a student anyway? I’m hardly ever on campus since I sleep in Boston and run off to New York at any given chance. As my friend Zac said, “Lena Chen isn’t actually an enrolled student at Harvard. She just hangs out on campus for a few days straight once every 3 or 4 weeks.”

Despite over a century’s worth of trumped-up rivalry, Harvard and Yale are far more similar than we are different. Taking the rivalry seriously is akin to treating a sibling quarrel like World War III. For the most part, I think students view The Game as more of a big show than anything else. It’s a reminder that once upon a time, we were actually athletically competitive, that we took pigskin more seriously than divestment or women in science, that our colleges indulged in … well, college-y antics.

So today when I began reading Alexandra Petri’s timely Harvard-Yale editorial in the Crimson, I expected it to be humorous and light-hearted. It turned out to be both, but also much more. After spending several paragraphs comparing the Facebook stats of Harvard and Yale students, Petri comes to the conclusion that “Yale students want to impress you with what they’re doing. Harvard students want to impress you with how cool they look while doing it.” And then the seeming fluff piece takes an unexpected turn:

Someone wise once said, “Going to Harvard means you will have to spend the rest of your life proving to people that you’re an idiot.” Yale students don’t have that advantage. That’s why they need to tell us they’ve been reading “Crime and Punishment” and watching “Amelie” again. Everyone has heard of Harvard, and this makes a wider range of people want to come. It also means that your average Harvard student is more—dare I say?—normal than your average Yalie. Harvard’s sheer world fame draws excellent students from all countries and backgrounds while Yale, less-known, still feeds off more exclusive, east-coast-preppy sources. 46 percent of Yale’s freshman class came from private and parochial schools. Only 36 percent of Harvard’s did.

Some people say that by putting an end to early action, Harvard will open floodgates to people who are applying on a whim “because it’s Harvard.” But when these people get in—as they frequently do—it is because they deserve to do so. Everyone praises Harvard “for the students.” But what makes Harvard’s students so great is that they are in many ways a cross-section of the larger world. They are normal people who happen to be excellent, and this sets them apart. People who go to Yale go because they want to attend Yale. People who go to Harvard go because they can.

I’ve read some of Petri’s columns before and I’ve been wholly entertained, but I find this piece particularly brilliant. Some could argue she’s extrapolating but who would’ve thought one could glean so much insight from listed interests on Facebook and then use that to compare it to the social implications of admissions policies?

Like I said, I think the rivalry is all in good fun, but ending early action is something I take quite seriously and I believe that equality of access at Harvard is pretty unparalleled, especially in comparison to Yale, which – for reasons incomprehensible to me – hasn’t followed suit. Even though my mother luckily had the foresight to encourage me to apply early to Harvard, my situation is very unique compared to others in my income bracket. Eliminating a system that has historically favored wealthy white students has major implications. When Petri wrote “people who go to Harvard go because they can”, she wasn’t just referring to my peers being smart enough to get accepted. She’s also saying that Harvard made it possible for us to find our way here in the first place, that the school cared enough to not just grab the first people who lined up with tutors and counselors at the ready.

I’m a recipient of HFAI and I wouldn’t have applied or been able to afford tuition without it. Early action is a bit more nuanced than a financial aid program but taken collectively, the two demonstrate Harvard’s real commitment to socioeconomic diversity. I know personally that this is true because Harvard in numerous small ways made it that much easier for me to choose where to go for college. I frequently air my continued frustrations with this institution, but I felt and still feel incredibly welcome here despite my family income being in the lowest five percent compared to my peers. I’m not at Yale so I can’t testify to how much more or less comfortable I’d feel there, but I think it’s fair to say that Harvard’s done more than probably any other college in advancing equal access (though admittedly we have more as well). For the most part, we’re not terribly different from our New Haven cousin, but this may be the one area in which the difference matters.

DONE with my midterm, presentation, and paper. Don’t have to repeat this cycle again for another six weeks, thank goodness.

Yesterday, I had to pull a last-minute save during my seminar on motherhood. I was supposed to be summarizing and leading a discussion on reproductive choice. Instead, I had read and written notes on a chapter about fetal rights. Don’t ask me how this happened — I think I was confused by my prof’s initial email and this confusion was compounded by a generally insane week. I somehow managed to skim, take notes, and write questions on the right chapter while we discussed the article I thought I was originally assigned. And then I presented and attempted to seem somewhat knowledgeable, while the entire time praying that I would not fuck up. Thank god I didn’t.

Somewhat ironically, it’s the best grade I’m going to end up getting of all the things I had to do this week. Molecules of Life? Pfft. Let’s not even talk about it.

But no more work talk. In celebration of good times this weekend, here’s a photo from last weekend with my best friend JB. We were at ZAP’s 21st birthday:

Check out a new blog from The New York Times written by eight college seniors who are “[facing] the future.”

The first entry posted is by Dartmouth’s Alice Mathias (also a columnist for The Dartmouth), who writes quite insightfully on her theory why Ivy-educated kids feel so much pressure to go corporate. Here’s an excerpt:

When we were kids, my friends and I played a game called MASH. This game forecast whether we would grow up to live in Mansions, Apartments, Shacks, or Houses, what our jobs would be, where in the world we would live, which of our celebrity crushes we would marry, and most importantly, what kind of pet we would have…

Back in our MASH days, our dream jobs were firefighting, I-banking, sales and trading, consulting, wealth management, mergers and acquisitions, and real estate finance … O.K., fine –– no one actually knew what “I-banking” meant when we were kids. We still don’t understand the specifics, but roughly translated it means: “getting rich.” Whatever it is, a stunning percentage of my generation’s most promising brainiacs are doing it. They could be curing diseases or discovering alternative energy sources or living at their parents’ houses, but instead, they are making millions for the Man over at the bank-tank.

I respect my many bank-bent peers who feel the need to make a lot of money for one glaringly freaky reason … Hurricane Katrina and the war in Iraq have underscored the notion that money is the common citizen’s only viable safety net. It doesn’t take an econ major to recognize basic applications of supply and demand. When helicopter rides out of danger zones become limited, they go to the rich. When the American Army finds itself with limited resources, it goes to the poor. If my classmates and I are going to live forever, we can expect to face many natural and man-made disasters. If these problems are not somehow avoided, it seems they will be escaped only by those who can afford a one-way ticket to that castle on the moon.

Mathias explains that young adults nowadays are turned off from politics because our generation has only seen leadership in the model of the Bushes and the Clintons. As graduation nears, public service is eschewed and “all the smartest kids in the room have instead elected to go Mr. Moneybags à la Monopoly.”

Thankfully, though, there are those who have managed to “[sneak] through the corporate cracks” and Mathias closes by saying that there’s certainly hope for a political revolution among the seemingly young and jaded. I’m just happy that there’s someone out there who’s talented, perceptive, and fully aware that we all deserve much better than a cubicle.

Apologies for the lack of blog entries! People keep inquiring if I’ve run out of material now that I’ve given up sex for Lent. Not quite. Life is just as interesting as it’s ever been, even sans intercourse. Just check out my CollegeHumor columns on masturbation and newfound celibacy.

This is the most stressful month of my time at Harvard yet. After finishing two 85 Broads events in two weeks’ time, I am in the final days of producing Medium, an arts event for the Women’s Leadership Network. Also, I have five papers to write this month. Lent or not, I’m fucked.

Not that this has stopped me from partying or running around with Adia. After Tuesday night tech rehearsal next week, I’m hitting up the Kong for the St. Patrick’s Day kickoff. I could have my thesis due; it’d be no deterrent from nightly festivities. Thanks to my schedule, I’ve been functioning on a caffeine high that will hopefully carry me past March 16 (the night of my show). If I look like a coked-up insomniac while giving my producer’s speech, you’ll know why. In fact, please buy tickets to Medium just so you can witness my personal shitshow. (Totally kidding, please don’t fire me.)

Time for a shameless plug! Kids, get your tickets at the Harvard Box Office now. For just $7, you can enjoy fantastic food, gallery art, a performance showcase, and me in a very small black number. Stripping during intermission. Tips welcome.

The Women’s Leadership Network proudly presents…