When I first met Meghna Sridhar, she was the managing editor of the opinion section of The Amherst Student. That year was one of the most exciting and tumultuous years for The Student, and I was fortunate to be a small part of it working with her. Although she soon left to study abroad at Oxford, upon returning she stuck around as a columnist, and I was often privileged to be one of the first people to read her opinion pieces. With her graduation, The Student will undoubtedly lose one of its most critical and insightful writers.
In sports, success is measured by triumphs and defeats, elation and anguish. Throughout her four years at Amherst, Naomi Bates has experienced the entire spectrum of emotion on the track. Quite possibly the most successful track and field athlete in Amherst College women’s track and field history, Bates cites her humble beginnings on the track as a middle school desire to hang out with the boys of a local all-boys school.
In the classic movie “Dead Poet’s Society,” John Keating, played by Robin Williams, instructs his students to listen in on the wisdom of old poets, like Whitman or Thoreau: “Listen, you hear it? — Carpe — hear it? — Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day, boys, make your lives extraordinary.” In my past three years at Amherst College, I have met no one else at Amherst who embodies this phrase more than Udochukwu Ojukwu, better known as Emeka.
A Supportive Role Model
The first thing that strikes you about Carlos A. González is his disposition. The man is personable. I remember meeting him in Val at the beginning of spring semester. Instead of cursorily shaking my hand, he got up from his seat and gave me a hug. We conversed with the ease of long-lost friends. When I finally had to run to start my English paper, he gave me one final hug and we agreed to talk more soon. I would see González interact this way with others multiple times thereafter, whether he had just met them or not.
The house lights in Holden Theater go down as Josh Wren enters stage right, dressed in a sharp-looking toupee, white Oxford shirt, black slacks and a professional tie and carrying a large brown briefcase, crossing to the opposite corner of the stage. He sets down the briefcase and begins to slowly move in a mechanical, puppet-like fashion across the stage as if his movements were being controlled by invisible hands. He meanders erratically across the stage for several minutes, occasionally falling to the floor and picking himself back up.
