Harvard President’s Address: a Different Life1. Students’ wonder■ What 【T1】___

Harvard president’s address: a different life
Welcome, students. Many of you must wonder what campus life would be like in a world so different from your high school, and in a world and living situation so different from that of your family home.
I hope you will come to understand the most important about this university- that it is a center of new and original ideas. And it is ideas that are ultimately most important in this world. I read this summer about how the great jurist, Oliver Wendell Holmes said that he had been "set on fire in his freshman year by reading the essays of Emerson." If I had but one wish for each of you, it is that in the years ahead you be set on fire, that your mind be captured by some set of external questions, by some area of human understanding; that you develop a passion for understanding, for progressing, that is so central to successful people everywhere.
This University and its faculty have no more important goal than helping you in this quest. How? It’s hard to say. Fires can’t be controlled. Passions can’t be predicted or planned. You are all different. But I give this advice:
First, follow your passion, not your calculation. What you will remember of your time here will be the special experiences, the things that really catch your imagination. Choose courses that cohere. Follow a program towards your objectives. But most importantly, do what catches your imagination. If there is something you really want to do, some curiosity that you want to pursue, make sure that you do it, and don’t let anything stand in your way.
Second, approach to the faculty. There is no more important responsibility for any of us as members of the faculty than teaching and working with you, the students of Harvard College.
One of the former young men-- I guess he’s middle-aged now-- who’s now one of the stars of our Economics Department, was at one time a sophomore at Harvard College. He approached me and said, ’Professor Summers, the paper you wrote is really quite good, but it has a few mistakes. I’d like a job as a research assistant.’ That led to an enormously productive relationship for both of us.
But I promise you that you will find faculty very willing to respond to your interests, to your curiosity, and to your invitations. Do not feel that you are ever wasting anyone’s time pursuing your curiosity or your interest. That is what we are all here for.
The last thing I would say is focus on ideas. This is an extraordinary, rich, and diverse community. There are enormous opportunities of all kinds-- extracurricular, athletic, social. Those experiences will have a huge impact on many of you. But I hope that none of you will lose sight of how special this time in your life is. It’s a time to learn. It’s a time to expose yourself, as you likely will only do during this period in your lifetime, to ideas that are completely different from what you have done, what you have seen, perhaps even from what you will see.
You can focus on ideas. Remember that faculty is here for you, and pursue our passion. You, too, can be lighted on fire during your years here.