Make this your LinkedIn headshot!

Virginia reminds us of old Bwog in one of these links… can you find it? 

Name, School, Major, Hometown: Virginia Fu, CC, Computer Science and History (both concentrations), North Andover, MA.

Claim to fame: Literary/Senior editor for the Blue and White mag, Potluck House resident, honorary member of CDCJ (I think), third-tier member of SWS. The UAW made this nice animation of me, based on a true story.

Where are you going? Home for an internship, to see if a life with computers is the right life for me.

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

1) It’s okay if you don’t know yet what you are doing with college or your life. To paraphrase the words of my freshman-year academic advisor, you are going to forget these classes in five years, and you are going to die. (I don’t actually think the first bit is true. It’s always good to keep things in perspective though.)

2) Don’t worry about whether you deserve to be here because no one really deserves to be here. Consider that admissions practices at elite institutions like Columbia have historically (very intentionally) functioned to legitimate and perpetuate existing social inequalities and that, as real and important as Columbia’s efforts to become more diverse are, this is still the case. You are here because you are the winners of a series of absurd and terrible lotteries. Do with that what you will.

3) That being said, this is the right place for you and you are going to have a great time. I seem to remember spending a lot of freshman year wondering if I would be better off/happier/more productive elsewhere. This was a silly thing to spend time thinking–Columbia is such a weird and fun place!!! Do what you came to do, do other, random things, do your dishes, ask for the help you need and deserve, and take care of yourself and others. Personally, in college, I have accomplished very little, have won no awards, and am more often than not completely bewildered, but these have been the best and most meaningful four years of my life. I have stumbled into friendships with people who I love and who challenge me to be better, have made terrible and wonderful mistakes, uprooted certain certainly wrong assumptions, acquired new–probably also wrong–assumptions, and grown into a smarter writer, thinker, person. When I applied for my degree last semester, I gave the pronunciation of my name to a woman wearing a necklace of skulls.

“Back in my day…”  Campus media was…different and Potluck House had two dogs!!! There was a decent computer lab in Butler but campus minimum wage was $9.The Manhattanville campus was a large hole in the ground (okay, it sort of still is) and there was probably less overall yoga on campus because the Office of University Life did not exist. In other words, the Lord giveth and She taketh away but remember that people have worked long and hard/sat through interminable CCSC meetings/created paper mache replicas of DSpar’s head//taken land away from other people using eminent domain for the things you have now!!!

Justify your existence in 30 words or fewer: I had to ask for an extension on this Senior Wisdom.

What was your favorite class at Columbia? I really loved LitHum with Margo Rosen and Epistemology with Max Hayward. Any educated and responsible citizenry should know that there is no rational basis for induction and that Porfiry Petrovich from Crime and Punishment is merely Raskolnikov’s reflection in the samovar. Computer Science Theory with Xi Chen was also pretty mind blowing. Gender and Power in China with Dorothy Ko–I could go on.

Would you rather give up oral sex or cheese? I don’t think cheese is very funny.

One thing to do before graduating Learn the words to “Solidarity Forever.” You never know when you might need it.

Any regrets? Not being smart or generous or loving enough. Posting a LinkedIn headshot in which I am smiling instead of (more appropriately) crying. Not joining the army or the seminary like I said I would. Not learning enough Chinese to read my grandfather’s poems. Not taking Kant, or Operating Systems, or the Kara Walker prints from Prezbo’s office when I had the chance.

P.S. My roommate Mia says don’t wait until senior year to buy a blowhorn!!!

We’d endorse you via Virginia Fu