Name, Hometown, School, Major: Gac Filipaj, New York City, GS, Classics

Claim to Fame? [Editor’s Note: Read about Gac’s claim to fame.]

Where are you going? I would like to go to grad school here at Columbia.

Three things you learned at Columbia:

  1. I thought I knew a lot, if not everything, but I came to know that I know almost nothing.
  2. Classical culture rules the world, and Latin language can unite humankind and the world.
  3. To try to find out which of the great minds were right and which were wrong.

Favorite class(es)? Professor(s)? Senior thesis, Majors’ Seminar, Philippics I and II, James Zetzel, Collomia Charles, Marcus Folch, William Harris, but without doubt, number one remains Seneca’s Letters with Gareth Williams.

Advice for the class of 2016: Now is the time to study. Do not leave it for when you reach my age. Do not get distracted by any failure. You fail when you lose your hope. Live to see what “the journey of life” is like. Stay on “the life-stage” until the end comes on its own. And do read Seneca’s letters.

Any regrets? I should have tried to come to the USA much earlier.

Photo via the NYDN