Tufts: The Opposite of Loneliness

Last week, I saw a story all over the news that had a profoundly strong effect on me. I reread it countless times, forwarded it to all my friends and family, and saved it on my desktop in a folder filled with inspiration, wisdom, and other things that sparked my interest. If you haven’t heard of Marina Keegan’s tragic and untimely death and wise-beyond-her-years commencement article, then click here immediately: article. Every college student, potential college student, and every person in between should read this article. I cannot do Keegan’s writing justice with my own. It is hard to articulate her message and why it connected with me in ways I can’t imagine. She speaks of the college experience in a way that I have often tried to express to my friends, family, and even you guys, prospective students. There is something about the college experience that cannot be found anywhere else.

As Keegan explains, if there was a word for the opposite of loneliness, it would be her experience at Yale. Although I’ve only had one year at Tufts, I can honestly say that a college experience at Tufts is the opposite of loneliness. At Tufts, you never feel alone. You feel like there is not only a strong sense of community, but also people who will always have your back. You feel like you are in this bubble of people just like you, all there for the same reason, and all feeling many of the same emotions that you feel every day. Like I said, I certainly cannot express Keegan’s message like she can, so all I can say is read it, feel it, remember it.

One line in her piece stuck with me. I think it sums up how I feel at Tufts and captures this idea of the opposite of loneliness. Her statement is simple, yet deeply true. She writes that after graduation, “We won’t live on the same block as all our friends.” She couldn’t be more right.