Giving too many fucks or none at all?

Your last senior wisdom of the day comes from Haley Fica, Barnard Physics major and dancer extraordinaire.

Name, School, Major, Hometown: Haley Fica, Barnard, Physics, Alpharetta, GA

Claim to fame: I’m the girl who wears shorts all year long, even in -20 wind chill, whoops. I’m in almost every dance group on campus (Orchesis, UnTapped, CoLab, Raw Elementz, Dance Department shows, you get the point), perpetual sayer of “I can’t I have rehearsal”, and one time I built some parts for a telescope in Chile.

Where are you going? Surprise! I’m not leaving. I’m getting my Masters in Mechanical Engineering at SEAS while attempting to be in a Broadway show.

What are 3 things you learned at Columbia and would like to share with the Class of 2021?

1) Give a lot of fucks, but try not to give too many fucks. Study, work hard, do all of those school related-things, but go have fun too. Go rush a Broadway show, go to the Sig Ep party you’ll probably regret, go to 1020 and ponder the mural and the random movies in the back, ask the boy out. I promise that it’ll be okay. You are allowed to have fun here too and you need to do stuff that is not related to Butler 209 or to your senior design project.

2) Talk stuff into existence. Trust me, I would not have graduated without doing this. I’ve done a lot of random stuff because I was like “screw it imma do this and they will deal”. I started my major a year late, have two minors, went abroad, and did research for two summers. I literally emailed someone to do research in their lab and he was like “Sure! come to Pasadena and build stuff”. I did not ask to go abroad, I told them I was. You don’t have to fall into this trap of “the universe is against me cause I didn’t get this internship”. You are capable of doing a lot, you just have to rip the band aid off and go for it.

3) For all my ladies // literally anyone who is not a cis-white man in a STEM department, you belong in that department and do not feel like you are a waste of space in that class room. Don’t let those accelerated physics kids get to you. You are equally as awesome and you cut through a lot more sexist and racist crap to be able to be there. If you feel unsafe or unsupported, tell someone. You deserve to be a STEM human, and stick with the people in your major who support you and let you thrive like the beautiful butterfly you are.

“Back in my day…” Barnard rocked this hardcore 1960’s art deco look and Maggie wasn’t Sweeney Todd-ed.

Justify your existence in 30 words or fewer: Twyla Tharp told me to “give em hell, Haley” so now I’m just here to fuck shit up.

What was your favorite class at Columbia? If you get through the intro physics classes, 3001 Waves with Timothy Halpin-Healy. He is the heart and soul of the Barnard Physics department and he cares immensely about everyone in his class. He does experiments at the end of almost every class, uses colored chalk in a way where he paints with physics equations, and his lectures are about topics he finds interesting. If you get on the subject of rainbows or sun dogs or polarization, he will go full Brewster’s angle on you and talk to you about the time he stopped on the side of a highway to take a picture of a full sun dog. One time, two other Barnard Physics majors and myself were using the physics blackboards at around 11:20 pm before our final, and this wonderful man came into the room, knew that we had no idea what was happening, and proceeding to help us solve our thermodynamics problems for an hour. You don’t see that kind of dedication from a lot of professors. Go hang out with him. Tell him I sent you. And ask him about the cabin he built without any nails.

Would you rather give up oral sex or cheese? Life without cheese is not a life I want to live.

One thing to do before graduating: Hang out with my friends who made my time here so great. And figure out a way to pass on my tradition of “take a picture in a swimsuit in the snow on College Walk”.

Any regrets? I wish I hadn’t acquired such an expensive Joe coffee habit. I also wish I had asked the boy out, but then again, I probably couldn’t, I had rehearsal.

Photo via Haley Fica