Name, Hometown, School, Major: Jessica Blank, Livingston NJ, Barnard College, Political Science

Claim to fame? I know who Millie the Bear is, bwog named a tag after me and I currently serve as Barnard’s SGA President.

Where are you going? I want to roadtrip across America (or as of right now, just from Chicago to St. Louis) before coming back to the greatest city in the world to live in an apartment equidistant between Starbucks, Coffee Bean and Dunkin’ Donuts (the holy trinity) and work in media marketing .

Three things you learned at Columbia:

  1. Most people in life are not genuinely funny but if you are lucky enough to find friends who are, hold on to them. They’ll come in handy when you need to write commencement speeches in front of the President of the United States (ILYFAE 2012).
  2. The Hall of Ocean at the Museum of Natural History is a surprisingly soothing place to do work! (It also happens to be my current location as I try to write my final paper of college and this senior wisdom.)
  3. Sometimes you get better life advice from your advisor’s assistant than your actual advisor.

“Back in my day…” subways were $2, java city made the best javalanches, and Barnard discovered the most popular giveaways, berets, at the opening of the Diana Center!

Justify your existence in 30 words or less: Speaking with Obama, Introduced Oprah and Gloria, Chatted with Martha, Congratulated by D.Spar on my engagement

Is the War on Fun over? Who won? Any war stories? I’m going to get all serious here and say that we as students sometimes create our own war on fun by constantly complaining about how stressed/busy we are. This year I battled my type A, crazy self, put down my papers and actually ventured out of Morningside heights in an attempt to become urban and cultured. What I learned was that you may not remember the names of the attendees of the Simla Conference in 1945 but you WILL remember the time you ditched class to see Mariano Rivera’s record breaking 602nd career save.

Would you rather give up oral sex or cheese? In my high school yearbook I was runner up for the person most likely to live off of cheese. I was also voted most likely to be a weathergirl.

Advice to the class of 2016: You don’t stick out like a sore thumb as much as you think you do. On a campus as diverse as ours, each student has their own “shtick” so just embrace yours!

Also, If you join the right clubs, you can outfit yourself with a wardrobe of free apparel.

Any regrets? Not discovering that the library sends emails to you when your books are due until $175 in fines later, not going to holi and not getting to know more of the inspiring people on both sides of Broadway!

Although, I guess if I warranted a senior wisdom, I must have done something right over the past 4 years.