Up next to spread her wisdom? Samantha Goldfarb, champion of Senior Night and Greek Life *celebrity*.

Samantha Goldfarb

Name, Hometown, School, Major: Samantha Goldfarb; Shaker Heights, OH; CC; Philosophy and Astronomy

Claim to fame: Outgoing Greek Life celebrity (jk just a lot of time in leadership positions), a couple hundred campus tours, one featuring Chris Rock (he was really into it) and the last of which was briefly trending on social media, and an RA in EC for the last two years. If none of the above, then definitely at any Senior Night, because I haven’t missed one (I take blood oaths seriously). Or I waved at you on campus accidentally, because I’m weirdly Midwesternly friendly like that

Where are you going? Wherever employment takes me, once I start applying to jobs of course. “Project Never Leave” is a real thing for me #denial

What are 3 things you learned at Columbia and would like to share with the Class of 2018?

1. Make a conscious effort to be happy. This includes all aspects of life. Remember to take care of yourself, evaluate where you’re spending your time, and with whom, and make sure that you’re not committing to things that are causing you serious unhappiness and sticking with them out of fear of what you’d have instead. Necessarily the time won’t be without hardship. Some challenges are good and inspire you while others lead to suffering for its own sake. When you figure out how to tell the difference before its too late, let me know.

2. Give into the transformative power of this place. You’ll change your mind about big things, little things, friends, clubs, and even the opinion you have of yourself. This experience of being in a place so full of incredible people and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities might cause you to question a lot of things. Maybe you’ll land squarely where you started, but try not to be afraid to allow Columbia to better you, if possible.

3. Put your phones down more often. They so often distract from what’s happening beyond the screen. I struggle watching a group of friends sitting at a table not interacting. The constant stream of emails and texts and tasks “requiring” immediate responses has, in my opinion, led to an inability to totally disconnect. The days unplugged and appreciating those around me, or spending time with myself without the pressure to be in constant communication were sweet.

“Back in my day…” East Campus was harder to get into than The Heights. ROLM Phones existed with no use. A lot of places changed names, but didn’t change that much (Amigos was Il Cibreo, I mean, Campo, Cannon’s was whatever name it had before this new name that still isn’t Cannon’s, etc.). On a more serious note, back then it seemed like no one talked about student wellness, so that’s a really nice change.

Justify your existence in 30 words or fewer: Genuine human interactions contribute most to my happiness. The rest: a quest to contribute anything useful my brief time, fearing I’ll never figure out how best to do it.

Write your most memorable note from the field: Side-stepping what is easily the hardest question here. So much life has been lived in the last 4 years, and I’ve seen too many incredible, inspiring, hilarious, absurd, and enlightening things to pick one note from the field. If I were smarter (or at least thought ahead more intentionally) I would have recorded my exploits in a field journal, but even then it would have been more for my own records than to be able to share them here.

Would you rather give up oral sex or cheese? Cheese.

One thing to do before graduating: Actually getting my copy of The Elegant Universe signed by Professor Brian Greene. I’ve been talking about it since I applied here and have not yet had the courage to make it happen. Even if I’m not planning to have a career in science any more, that book is what set me on the path that ultimately led here, and it’d be nice to have the chance to tell Professor Greene that.

Any regrets? Only not learning how to move beyond small talk more quickly. I had four years to live in a place with such a high concentration of passionate, intelligent, accomplished people. I regret not moving beyond asking what work we had or what meeting we were heading towards so that I could learn why it mattered to that person or what they thought about it. Or what they thought about everything else. We’re so different, and talk about benefiting from those different perspectives in the classroom, and I wish I had been more willing to do that socially more often.

And probably the answers I’ve given to these questions…