Senior Wisdom: Tom Faure
No Spec means no QuickSpec. So this morning, Bwog gives you… FaureSpec? That’s quick-speak for the Senior Wisdom of former Spectator EIC, Tom Faure.
Name, School: Tom Faure, CC ’09
Claim to fame: Started with SEEJ, volunteered at Postcrypt Coffeehouse for a while, and was Spectator Editor in Chief after years covering student politics shenanigans. My claim to substantive relevance may be that I publicized, I think for the first time, what the hell F@CU is. But my real claim to fame is I got this email from Bwog.
Post-grad plans: Three nouns and three adjectives that have yet to pair up: journalist, novelist, and philosopher; failed, freelance, and broke.
Favorite study spot: Some friends and I would shack up in Butler 303 for weeks, but camping is a little harder these days. Avery is nice, but inevitably the only place I get any work done is Butler 202.
What are three things you learned at Columbia?
1) In the words of Poor Tom’s a Cold: “The worst is not, So long as we can say, ‘This is the worst.’”
2) I’d known the world was an infinitely complex puzzle beyond my full comprehension. What I never realized was how infinitely complex and interesting are the people that comprise that world. (Not to seem like a pedantic name-dropping twat, but Wittgenstein’s phrase, “The limits of my language means the limits of my world,” is basically the coda to my airhead liberal art studies. My addendum would be that the limits of my world mean the limits of my language. Good people can enrich one’s vocabulary.)
3) For my friends, with love and affection: Ballz.
Justify your existence in 30 words or less. I think that I, unlike some, generally admit to the possibility that I am wrong. I play blues guitar. I’m a lightweight, hence a cheap date. Ballz.
Any battle wounds/war stories from the War on Fun? I went through the disciplinary process and received a warning, even though at the time of the “bust” there were really only about 10 people in my suite (and hundreds of empty beer cans…).
Would you rather permanently give up oral sex or cheese? As I am French I do not understand the distinction.
What do you wish you could tell the Class of 2013 before they come here?
Before getting here: enjoy yourself–Columbia parties generally suck. Once you get here: you don’t have to do the reading. While you’re here: I never fully recognized this until recently, but no matter how many responsibilities are on your plate, you can make time for what really matters to you. Finally: for God’s sake, whatever you do, nurture a hobby of some kind outside your academics. Read books for pleasure, volunteer, take up kite-flying, or grow illegal plants in your closet, but do something. Just kidding – no one reads books anymore.
Regrets? There are many things I wish had turned out differently, but I hold no concrete “regrets.” Except Roti Roll.
Tags: senior wisdom, senior wisdom 2009
6 May 2009 @ 5:37 AM · 28 comments
on 
say twat?
i don’t get it
yes! finally
love Tom Faure
dude and nice too
While you’re here: I never fully recognized this until recently, but no matter how many responsibilities are on your plate, you can make time for what really matters to you.
so true.
Hey Bwog! Check out D.Spar trying to write Barnard’s college application essay!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124155688466088871.html#mod=rss_whats_news_us
Thanks for being Tom. I’ll miss you.
PS Bwog, FYI Spec is still publishing certain stories online
You’re the best, Tom. You’ll be missed.
KING TOM FAURE
senior wisdom so far.
it seemed a bit self indulgent
I loooooooooove blues! blues blues blues blues! yay! blues>>everything!
He was the best EIC ever! Also he is awesome.
I like this one
Tom’s a great guy, and I love this senior wisdom.
Ballz.
KING TOM FAURE, LONG LIVE THE KING!
Excellent work, Tom. You will be missed here on campus. It is rather unfortunate, though, that a man of your wisdom and esteem can degrade himself to support two of the most reprehensible sports franchises on the planet, the Boston Red Sox and Manchester United.
Agreed.
dorky mcdorkstein
Have mine. Now. Please.
Best senior wisdom.
Babies-now.
LYDIA DEPILLIS
LILI GU!
isn’t a real senior. Though her senior wisdom would be amusing.
A slightly better translation of Wittgenstein’s line, “Die Grenzen meiner Sprache sind die Grenzen meiner Welt” would be “The limits of my language are the limits of my world.” Assigning ‘meaning’ to the limits of language strikes me as problematic in this context. Nice inversion of the quote, though. You might be interested in reading Elisabeth Reichart, an Austrian author who titled a series of lectures on poetry “Die Grenzen meiner Welt sind die Grenzen meiner Sprache.”
http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/l/ldemerit/reichtrans.html
I always knew you were a massive, massive douchebag and tool. Your condemnation of the greatest team in the world was therefore inevitable.
FACT: baseball sucks
is delicious