Embrace the unknown.

Name, School, Major, Hometown: Hannah E. Revels | Barnard College | English Major | Chicago <3

Claim to fame: Bwog’s former Interim Editor in Chief, Internal Editor, and constant bundle of mystique. Latenite Co-director, and WKCR programmer (and huge fan).

Where are you going? To two rooms: First operating, then news. 

What are three things you learned at Columbia and would like to share with the Class of 2028?

  1. Go to campus and sit down. You deserve this place—use it!!! 
  2. Go to the fourth floor of Milstein during sunset and study on the terrace on a warm evening. It’s usually pretty empty and you can get a great view of campus.
  3. Embrace the unknown. I know this is a cliche but it exists for a reason. Lean into the uncertainty because as I have witnessed firsthand, structure can fall apart. Nothing is predictable. The best course of action is to learn how to roll with any punch.

+1 Bonus Piece of Advice: Your appearance is wonderful no matter how you look. Don’t spend so much time trying to perfect it!! Use these four years to try things out knowing that you will land no matter what.

“Back in my day…”  “Unit of time” was still a part of the collective consciousness.

Favorite Columbia lore? The fact that nothing rhymes

What was your favorite class at Columbia? 

I have four and all of them occupy equally niche spaces in my brain: 

  1. Writing the Medieval Self with Eugene Petracca (this class forced me to speak Middle English and it rocked)
  2. New Millennial American Fiction with Margaret Vandenburg
  3. Introduction to Poetry Workshop with Alex Dimitrov (!!!) 
  4. World’s End with Jack Halberstam

Whom would you like to thank? 

I would be absolutely nowhere without any of the following: The entire Barnard English Department, specifically Patricia Denison, Nathan Gorelick, and Rachel Eisendrath. My wonderful academic advisor, Peter Platt. You all have opened my mind to the greater things in this life. 

OH. The immense gratitude I have for my mom deserves a line break. Nobody is as intelligent, hilarious, charismatic, and beautiful as she is. I owe all that I love about myself to her. Also, thank you to my dad and twin brother for answering my calls and letting me rant. Special shoutout to Jacob for being weirder than me. 

This place introduced me to the best people on Earth. Thank you to those of you in my closest circle for enabling my chaos, and thank you to Bwog for giving me a creative outlet, the opportunity to be a leader, and such a wonderful community. I will forever be rooting for you guys.

One thing to do before graduating? Taking one, very large, deep breath.

Any regrets? Obviously, at least 2,024 of them.

Hannah via Hannah