He had debated going to school with his brother, but chose Harvard over Cambridge out of what he describes as a “melodramatic” notion that this college would be more exciting.
When Daniel’s brother came to visit, he was surprised by the roommates’ long discussions and debates, because at Cambridge most of his friends spent their free time drinking heavily at the pubs.
On one of these evenings this fall, Aaron remembers, the roommates were sitting on their balcony sharing drinks, casual jibes and jokes.
They hadn’t talked about the impending war in Iraq before, but it was on Aaron’s mind. So he asked his roommates’ opinions. Conversation lingered on until 4 a.m., touching on questions of what it means to be patriotic—for instance, they asked, does patriotism mean feeling happy when Iraqi soldiers die?
“I’ll never forget that,” Aaron says. “I brought it up and they were able to embrace the conversation. It made for a very fulfilling night.”
As the roommates prepare to leave Harvard, they say they will miss these conversations, interspersed as they often are with joking, semi-insulting nicknames and, of course, the Jamaica Plain dialect.
Sam and Nick, who each took a semester off, are returning to campus in the fall for his final term of studies, and Anthony plans to live with them. In the spring, Kieran and Sam plan to intern together in Atlanta at the Southern Center for Human Rights. They hope to turn their experience into a documentary film on the injustices of state-appointed legal representation.
Their trajectories might intersect, but these roommates know that the dynamic of their relationships will never be the same after graduation.
“I’m going to miss long, late-night talks with Kieran on the roof of Old Quincy,” Sam says. “I’ll miss our extended three-hour-long jokes, Aaron’s pumping-up speeches and energy, Nick’s bizarre personality and Dan’s sense of humor.”
He continues, “I could be friends with any one of these guys for the rest of my life.”
—Staff writer Daniela J. Lamas can be reached at lamas@post.harvard.edu.