Hello!

So I am currently sitting in my room in Hampden Hall, staring out at very famous gate that leads into Harvard Square. It says “Enter to Grow in Wisdom” on the side that I can see, with a similar inscription on the other side, partially hidden by the steep angle between it and Wigglesworth (a freshman dorm) – “Depart to Serve better Thy Country and Mankind.” I don’t see why the two should be discrete; we should constantly be serving mankind, including our country, and are surely capable of doing that while studying. That is all I have to say about that matter, for the moment.

So. Where was I? Oh yes. Yesterday I took the Dartmouth Coach, my favorite bus that can only be described as an airplane on wheels, to Boston for the summer. I’ll be working here for the next few months as a summer tours coordinator and a proctor, getting heavily involved in the Harvard life from different angles – no longer am I just the student, but also the authoritaaay. (Haay!) So that will be incredibly interesting and challenging – I can’t wait to talk about my experiences! I also was assigned to live in a huge suite in Eliot House, one of our upperclassmen dorms. The suite normally holds two or three people, but it will be just me, as there’s a single proctor (kind of like a RA) assigned to each entryway (a subdivision of the dorm). So I have three rooms! Lo and behold, I have no furniture, but that shall be resolved somehow.

After moving all of my stuff into the room I’ll be living in for this week (can’t move into my massive suite just yet, major flaw with Harvard’s housing…all of these bridge weeks and such), I walked up to my friend’s apartment to watch the Bruins game. It was a lovely evening, with sweet warm air, and I started to get excited for the summer. Honestly, it reminded me of Paris…the exhaust smell cutting through the gentle breeze, the slightly muffled street noises, the kind-of slower pace. I passed Currier, where I lived last year, and was not surprised to see that everything looked exactly the same. Eventually, I made it to Allie’s place, ate some delicious food in her adorable apartment, and sat down to watch the most grueling game of hockey I’ve ever seen. It was so intense. TRIPLE OT. Unfortunately our team did not win. 🙁 We still have a ton of chances (6) and will beat Chicago, I don’t care how hard we have to try.

 

But on a better note, I went to my six month check-up for my vocal nodule situation today. After waiting for a bit too long, I was escorted into my fabulous doctor’s examination room, was sprayed with foul, bitter numbing solution in my nostrils, was scoped (camera in the nose), had to say ‘ee’ a few times, and was shown the before and after pictures of my vocal folds. (Look it up if you have no idea what I am talking about, basically it is the part of your larynx that makes you phonate or create sound.) My vocal folds were really healthy, and my doctor said she hadn’t seen progress like that in a long time. I am pumped! It is another confirmation that I am actually making progress, and that my weird diet is truly helping me. My voice teacher yesterday, who hadn’t seen me in six months, was thrilled by my voice’s progression. As a musician, as someone who really truly eats, sleeps, and breathes music, not being able to express myself in the most natural way was the worst. I only had to sacrifice a few months, though, instead of my whole life, which is really what it would have come to if I’d continued singing and not knowing about my acid reflux. I sang a very clear, very comfortable high C yesterday, something I’ve known I was capable of but also something that’s been so painful and weak for the past few years. Things are looking up.

In other news, I have started arranging “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes,” that fantastic Paul Simon song, for the Opportunes (my a cappella group on campus). If you are coming to Harvard in the fall, and you can sing, AUDITION for us! I would be thrilled a. because I would know that people actually read this thing and b. because then we could hang out and sing together. Okay, I’m off to get some food before I watch the latest Superman with some of my Nostalgics friends at midnight! Woohoo. Go man of steel, etc etc.

Peace Out.

-Reid