C l a s s  of  2 0 0 8

Each year we ask our classmates a straightforward, simple question taken from the last lines of a poem by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Mary Oliver. It seems such an easy question on the surface, but sometimes the easy questions are the hardest to answer. Indeed, although we ask for only 200 words or less, most people grapple with the question a long time. We share with you intimate and candid responses from the Class of 2008 to this question,"What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

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The Summer Day by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean -
the one who has flung herself
     out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out
     of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and
     forth instead of up and down -
who is gazing around with her
     enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and
     thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open,
     and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention,
     how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down
     in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how
     to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?


     
Jaime Arreola    I want to live THIS day. I have a lucky past...   Ferran Ayala    You have to be "luchadores" (fighters) to make things happen in life. Success does not come easy, and you have to fight to earn it....   Priv Bradoo    I think of Grass Hoppers, Swans and Black Bears Of Blessings, and many Summer Days...   Mike Cohen    When it comes to the legacy I hope to leave, I have some tough acts to follow...
     
Seth Cohen    Before arriving at HBS, I was well-trained at crafting a resumé. One page of pretty font boasted fancy themes like "entrepreneurial passion" and "social impact."...   Jessica Deckinger    I remember standing in my crib and watching my mother sing Aretha Franklin's "R-E-S-P-E-C-T."...   Sonali Duggal    On the last day of class, a professor left our section with the following words: "Unpack your bags."...   Rebecca Gifford    When I was a child, my parents taught me 1960's folk songs instead of lullabies...

 
 
 
Laura Hayden    When I was little I wanted to be a comedian. I thought there was something magical in being able to make others laugh...   Jamie Holden    During my first year at West Point, one of the many things required of a Plebe was to memorize "The Days."...   Junaidi    I want to teach soccer to everyone in the world. For many, soccer is just a game. For me, it is beyond that...   Allison Kotzin    When I was growing up, my Dad could not drive me to sports practice like the other fathers in my neighborhood...

 
 
 
Jen Lee    At the age of ten, I learned to sit very still on the edge of a chair with my two feet firmly planted on the floor. Holding my cello...   Yanni Liu    I am what I eat. I am what I feed...   Anita Lynch    I am not graceful or coordinated, but dancing allows my soul to transcend...   Amy McGowan    My history is built on the American Dream...
     
Soma Mukherjee    I remember the words that graced the entrance to the Operating Room in my grandfather's nursing home in Calcutta...   Sohil Parekh    When I was ten, I wanted to be an astronaut. I thought I’d be able to reach out and touch the stars...   Mina Park    I by no means had a typical, average life, and yet I still hesitate to be different...   Peter Park    My friend Iminza is a thirty-six year old single mom living with HIV. She received a paycheck for the first time in her life six months ago...
     
Avni Patel    Audacious. Is there more beautiful a word? I fell in love with it when we first met...   Nana Araba Quagraine    In 1995, just one year after South Africa's first democratic elections, I enrolled as an engineering student at a previously white-only university...   Anisha Raghavan    Who knows where my career will take me? I only know it will begin in marketing, keep me passionate, and encompass creativity...   Sridevi Raghavan    Looking out of the first floor balcony of my home in Chennai, I would notice laborers; rickshaw drivers and maids lovingly dropping their kids off at school...
     
Rob Ryman    I often think of Zusya, an early Hassidic rabbi. When Reb Zusya didn't have long on this earth, his students found him crying...   Jason Sanders    There are no real tomorrows, no plans, no potential leads. All I have are moments, just fleeting spots of time...   Joel Segre    It took a while for me to realize that I don't just want to feel accomplished. I want to feel alive...   Jared Simon    Sitting in my grandfather's garden as a child, surrounded by fig trees and tomato vines, I was in a state of wonder...
       
Ian Simons    This past December I returned home to my parent's house to help my mother decorate our family's Christmas tree...   Jeremy Tan    Can you really plan your life? Did you know when you would be born? Do you know when you will take your last breath?...   Gilbert Tang    Code Blue, room 701! I jump to my feet and run. Racing to save a life, a life that I don’t know...   Tian Tian    I opened the Black-Scholes calculator in my HBS tool kit, trying to figure out the price for my options in life...

© Copyright 2002-2009 Tony Deifell