With all our freaks, geeks, and future politicians/sex solicitors, Harvard doesn’t really have a reputation for churning out “normal” people. Most people believe that all Harvard students do in college is sleep and study, which doesn’t allow for any social interaction whatsoever. Some of this is well-founded. At our senior trip to a Red Sox game, I saw a girl furiously doing her math homework, calculator and all, right there in the bleachers of Fenway Park. Harvard 1, Normal 0.
Most Harvard people, though, do come out pretty well-adjusted after college. Unlike popular perception, we don’t always wear our elitist blazers with cashmere sweaters tied around our necks. We don’t drink alcohol out of lab beakers and carry TI-83s to calculate our BACs (we do that in our heads). We still get shwastey-faced and make bad decisions at shady bars with unattractive strangers.
In fact, to show how normal we really are, let me tell you about “Chase”, a fellow Harvard grad from Jersey.
Chase is just another twenty-something with a steady job, a sweet girlfriend, and a gregarious personality. He’s a very nice guy with good intentions. But, he’s also crazy. Crazy in a totally normal, Florida State way.
Even though I would best describe him as an “acquaintance,” I’ve seen Chase get drunk, get in fights, and get naked and run through the streets. I’ve seen him projectile vomit, pass out, and ice-luge goldfish (multiple times, though not necessarily in that order). At the Harvard-Yale tailgate on Saturday, I saw Chase operating at his very best: funneling Buds and leading raucous cheers about how much Yale sucks.
See? At Harvard, we do have typical, jock-ish frat boys with high tolerances and low inhibitions. So, you can say it: Harvard–they’re just like us! (Notice how I reference popular mag Us Weekly to show how normal I am.)
Then again, as much as we love “normal” people (like Sarah Palin), perhaps we do need our leaders to deviate from the normal distribution. I think I speak for everyone when I say that I don’t want our President crushing beers on his head while memorizing the nuclear codes.
“Do you realize,” my friend mused, as we watched Chase shotgun another Bud, “That Chase could be the Republican senator of New Jersey one day?”
At least it’s just Jersey.
Twitter: 
