This farewell piece traditionally requires a personal statement, so the question is, "Which group do I fall into?" My answer is best expressed by a former Crimson editor who considers herself a proud but critical Harvard alumna: "Someone once asked me, 'Didn't you enjoy it?' and I said, 'Well, yes, but being on the Crimson, it was my job to criticize it.' I think that's the most interesting place to be, perched between devotion and mild contempt."

Though I might replace "mild contempt" with "critical disapproval," the statement nevertheless captures my perspective of Harvard. From an objective standpoint, I have been very lucky here: I found a concentration in classics which was small enough to be accessible and challenging enough to be academically inspiring and an activity in The Crimson which was personally and socially fulfilling. Along the way, I have found friends and teachers whom I will leave today with great appreciation and not a little sadness. But also along the way, I learned to criticize the institution which has given me so very much and struggled to balance my affection for it with my skepticism of it.

We have all often been too busy, focused upon our own desires and obligations, to stop and listen to the voices from the walls and lintels of the Yard in the last four years, too busy to acknowledge the presence of the ghosts in our Harvard lives, those spirits who have influenced us and everyone around us. But Commencement in the magic year 2000 is as good a time as any for administrators and students alike to stop and listen to the voices of the Yard and to acknowledge the influence of Harvard's ghosts. Perhaps they will serve as the ghost of Hamlet's father did for the young Prince of Denmark (Class of 1600?), helping to whet their and our almost blunted purposes. The winding train of ghosts of students past which we are about to join can still have influence, and some of that influence will be ours.

Susannah B. Tobin '00, a classics concentrator in Lowell House, was editorial chair of The Crimson in 1999.