Before he made national headlines, I met Will Curry. At least, I think I did. I didn’t realize it at the time, but once the name “Will Curry” was all anybody could talk about, I heard from friends that he was definitely with us one night at FloMo.
To be honest, I’m still not sure. I mean it makes sense. There were always a few new faces each week. I can picture it, but I also can’t.
In the years since, I’ve mentioned this to friends from campus and home alike, always adding, “but I could be wrong” in case it was never true. But after saying it so many times, isn’t it true now? It feels true at least.
I’ve been thinking a lot about memories.
Partially in a sappy sense, but mainly as part of my design major capstone. Over the past two quarters my team created tidbit, a social scrapbooking app meant to ensure the little moments — tidbits, if you will — don’t slip away, instead becoming cherished memories.
Whether these tidbits are 2 a.m. conversations in lieu of a p-set or a Friday afternoon fountainhopping session, the hope is that by sharing these moments with others, you’ll want to capture more of them, preserving your lived experiences in a memory capsule you can look back on.
Barring a crazy series of events at our final expo, tidbit probably ends here — a cool thing we built, and crashed out over, together as friends.
Still, as part of testing the product, I’ve been keeping daily digital scrapbook entries of my past quarter and a half. I’d love to attribute my consistency to our unique genius or the d.school’s one-of-a-kind design thinking methodology. More realistically, I’m just trying to remember as much of these last few months as I can.
Stanford has been a rich, life-changing experience for me. But for much of my time here, I have only a vague idea of what I was doing any given day.
Storming the field when Stanford beat Oregon. Mooing as a cow for my first Bay to Breakers. Skiing for the first time in Lake Tahoe. Mooing as a cow for my last Bay to Breakers. These I’ll remember forever.
In the absence of flashbulb scenes, I have a collection of memories, some vivid, some hazy, some probably made up, filled in by what I’ve heard from friends or what feels true.
Post-grad, everyone I meet will have their own version of Stanford, shaped by what feels true to them. In a few weeks, I’ll move back to Chicago and reenter the real world, which has had me thinking a lot about what life here must look like from outside our suffocating, bizarre, incredible little bubble.
I’ve heard a related thought for years as a news editor for The Daily. Friends and classmates have come to me saying, “The Daily only covers the negative stuff. The value of my degree is gonna go down.” I disagree with the premise, logic and nearly everything else about this sentiment. But I understand it.
When people back home think about Stanford, there’s only so much they can pull from. Maybe like me, they knew Stanford for their Rose Bowl appearances behind Andrew Luck and Christian McCaffrey.
Maybe they’ve read the Daily stories that have gone national and know us for the scandals. MTL. FTX. The “War on Fun,” and more.
Or they know us for where it may seem like we’re heading: an AI boom built by 20-year-olds splitting their time between fraternity backyards and the YC headquarters.
Whichever version they have of Stanford, there’s some truth to it, even if the edges are a little blurry.
Stanford had a great football culture, and maybe with Andrew Luck’s unwavering enthusiasm for Stanford football, we’ll get back there soon. In our four years here, we’ve seen three university presidents and been at the center of debates on the state of higher education. Through it all, Stanford has survived and will continue to pump out the next generation of Silicon Valley icons.
A byproduct of writing down my “tidbits” each day has been an incentive to collect more: to go to CoHo Open Mic, to make it to Easter Mass in MemChu, to keep trying to win Rose & Crown trivia (next week is our week).
Earlier this quarter, a freshman asked me for advice as a senior, and I told him, “Nothing’s that deep.” Don’t worry about a bad p-set grade or dorm drama or what the dining halls are serving.
If they were to ask me today, I’d tell them something different. Collect all the tidbits you can.
Take a screenwriting class. Study abroad. Moo with your friends.
Try new things, keep Stanford weird and have a great time doing it.