And as her freshman year begins, the camera pans out, the credits roll and a different chapter begins.

The First Semester

Murray moved into her single in Canaday Hall in the fall of 2000, sharing a suite with three other girls.

“I got along with [my roommates], but we were all busy,” Murray says. “We all ran to our singles and used them, and we were in our own little worlds. I don’t think we connected like we should have.”

Murray says that she spent much of her free time in Lamont Library and didn’t eat in Annenberg along with the other first-years, opting instead to listen to the music in Harvard Square, which she says reminded her of Washington Square Park in New York City.

Although Murray did not socialize much with Harvard students her first semester, she did befriend some fellow first-years, including Rachel Bloomkatz ’04, who met Murray at a dinner at the Dudley Co-op.

“She was a really cool person. We got along pretty well, even though we never got to be that close,” Bloomkatz says.

Alexander B. Gordon ’04, who also met Murray in her first semester at Harvard, says that Murray made a very positive impression on him.

“She is just an incredible person,” Gordon says. “She is smart and thoughtful, she knows how to talk to people and understand them.”

However, it seems that from the beginning, Murray never found her place within the Harvard community.

According to Murray, there were problems with her family and her apartment in New York City and, to add to this stress, she had been offered a number of book and movie deals before even setting foot in Cambridge.

“I just don’t think she integrated to life here at all,” Bloomkatz says.

Bloomkatz, Gordon and others who knew Murray suggest that realities outside of Cambridge had negative effects on her social life, and ultimately might have interfered with her academic performance.

“She had difficulties from the moment she got here with the atmosphere,” Bloomkatz said. “She was always looking for alternative lifestyles here—she expressed interest in the Co-op.”

Murray says that she wishes she had made more of an effort to befriend her peers.