As you very well know, it’s not all that difficult to spot me on any given autumnal day. Sit out on the West Campus quad for long enough and you will inevitably see a 5’10” lad strutting along in a vibrant Chanukah cardigan, my signature (and only) piece of seasonal outerwear.
It’s been over a month since our last public correspondence here in the paper and I’m sure a lot has happened in the meantime. Your first round of midterms. Your second time doing laundry. Your third time losing your Duke card.
Dear Noah, Can you believe that you’ve been in college for over a month now?
Dear Noah, Mazel Tov! You’ve survived O-Week and your first two weeks of college!
Exactly three years ago, I stood where you now stand: on the doorstep of the rest of my life. It was my first day of college, and I had so many thoughts running through my mind. Who are my friends going to be? Will I find my passion? Is this prison cell of a dorm room really where I’m going to be living for the next nine months? I felt much uncertainty, and even more excitement, as I crossed the threshold into my future. What followed was an exhilarating first year at Duke, a series of highs and lows, of 3 a.m. conversations with soon-to-be best friends and unshakeable feelings of insecurity, doubt and fear.
It’s about 5 o’clock on a Thursday evening. A sea of young, worried faces criss-crosses the residential quad, hustling from a lecture to the library or from the gym to one of two adjacent glass cubes. There is a bead of sweat on their collective brow, either from the lingering humidity of summer or the prevalent mugginess of procrastination.
Since 2010, I have taken an annual photograph with a dim sum waiter. His name is Peter Chung and, over the years, we have created a rather strange, but nonetheless timeless tradition of picture-taking. As the folklore of my own personal narrative has it, I first met Peter on an auspicious Sunday morning in the eighth grade.
It is imperative for our success tonight and for the future of Duke basketball that we rediscover what has made us the best student section in all of college sports.
I aspire to run my very own alpaca farm. Really, I do.
(As told by the @realDonaldTrump Twitter account.)
