Tufts Blogs

College upperclassmen are more accomplished than you are. This is basically fact. Even if you’re the kid building a resume like Anthony Monaco’s, the one digging wells in Niger and saving the world, upperclassmen have a lot they can teach you, and, importantly, a lot they can offer you. And yes, if you haven’t guessed it, this may very well be a thinly veiled letter of confession; upperclassmen are great hosts for opportunity seeking parasites (myself included). Luckily, symbiotic mutualism works its wonders at Tufts.

So, as if this Summer weren’t great already, I recently found a few accomplished upperclassmen, sent a single email, and started writing for Sound of Boston (SoB), an online music publication founded by then Tufts rising seniors (now alumni!) Knar Bedian and Jonah Ollman. Spellcheck doesn’t seem to like their names as much as I do. 

Knar and Jonah have welcomed a growing family of over a dozen writers to SoB. Though we cover artists from around the globe (I saw and talked with MØ, a Danish pop singer, last Saturday. It’s good blog reading music, by the way), SoB emphasizes the importance of local acts, as the name would suggest. I’m obliged to say that these things, meeting new people and honing writing and reporting skills, are the great boons... but free concerts are pretty great too.

Press passes and all, it makes me feel slightly more legitimate than I feel now, writing this blog at my public library. It’s Summer, mind you. I should be sleeping or something. This new sense of accomplishment is all thanks to Knar and Jonah’s old accomplishment, their creative drive and product, and their willingness to accept someone like me. Without these upperclassmen gurus of yonder, I’d be stuck in a world with more libraries and fewer concerts. And who wants that?

Really this is just the beginning. There were hundreds of seniors in the class of 2014, all with unique accomplishments to their names. The class of 2015 is no different. I’m not promoting mooching or harmful parasitism per se, but I am suggesting that underclassmen, even freshman, should get to know and take advantage of the groundwork upperclassmen have laid. It’s unquestionably beneficial for the student of the relationship, inspiring, connecting, and giving him hands on experience, yet it’s beneficial for the sensei as well, giving him a minion, a pup to teach, a student with whom to work. If that’s the first time I’ve ever referred to myself as a “pup,” may it be the last. 

But there are, as I’ve seen, certain benefits to being a puppy. You get fed. You get walked. And with time, you’ll be the sensei.