Inside Harvard: TD Grad reflects on first year in Ivy League
Yahir Santillan-Guzman, a 2021 graduate of The Dalles High School sits on the steps at Harvard in Cambridge, Mass. He was accepted into Harvard in April 2021. So, what’s it been like to study at the nation’s oldest and most coveted learning institution?
By Yahir Santillan-Guzman
Prior to moving into Harvard, I was filled with feelings of self-doubt: the word “fraud” crossed my mind more than once. No matter how I looked at it, there was no way a small-town kid from rural Oregon was going to be able to compete with the creme de la crème of students in the world. I mean, how was my AP English class anything compared to students who came out of the womb writing poetry? Well, it’s now been a little more than a year since I packed my bags and flew 3,000 miles across the country, and I’m happy to be able to say that yes, Yahir, you do belong here.
When I say belong here, I don’t mean Harvard has been a cakewalk. There have been clubs that have rejected my application, tests I wish I could retake, and classes that have definitely accelerated grey hair growth, but these failures are a part of my journey, and I welcome them since they only make my successes sweeter. My first A in a class, my first meaningful contribution to a discussion, or even someone coming to me for homework help are all moments I deem as huge personal triumphs.
They might not mean much in the grand scheme of things, but success should be in the eye of the beholder.
If success is viewed relatively, it’ll be almost impossible to be content with yourself; there’ll always be a bigger fish to fry.
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Learning to be comfortable with everything you’ve accomplished, yet remaining ambitious enough to pursue your goals is the key to being able to thrive in a competitive bubble. The sooner this realization hits and you’re able to view your peers as colleagues with remarkable work ethics instead of competition, the sooner you are able to appreciate the caliber of students with which you are surrounded and their astounding accomplishments, which I believe is what makes college an amazing place.
The same guys who I argue with about who’s turn it is to take the trash out have done research in rural China for Stanford University, worked alongside the mayor of Denver in crucial infrastructure projects, or wrote graduate-level papers in high school, but I view them with the same respect I had with my classmates from The Dalles High School.
I firmly believe TDHS has more than sufficiently prepared me for college and that it’s always been a nest for talented students. In fact, I’m convinced that many of my former classmates would not only survive, but excel in this academic boxing ring. In the one year that I’ve been here, I haven’t bumped into another student from Oregon, but I am confident that before I walk across the graduation stage, I will not be the only Riverhawk that gets the opportunity to walk through the gates of Harvard.
Read CCCNew’s story on Yahir’s acceptance into Harvard here.
