I was going to work on my thesis a little right now, but I think this story needs to be told.
This evening, I had my final thesis tutorial section with my group of fellow anthro concentrators of the semester. It took place in a part of campus on the other side from where I live, the quad; walking back to my room would take more than 30 minutes, it was night, and it was getting late, so taking the shuttle from the Mather shuttle stop wasn't a question. (Mather to the quad is basically as far as you can get on the Harvard College campus.)
After saying good-bye to the group, I found myself at the shuttle stop still talking to Liam (the boy in the cap) and William (the Asian boy on the edge of the picture). Liam was going to head back to Quincy, their house, and William was debating whether or not to go to this study break that had free dumplings hosted by the Asian American Women's Association (AAWA) at the Women's Center. The alternative was to go to the quad, where he also lives, and go to sleep. At first, he was going to walk to the Women's Center from Mather, but since he was already with me at the shuttle stop, I told him he could just take the shuttle with me and get off at Widener Library and walk to the Women's Center, instead of getting off at the quad.
I checked the shuttle app and saw that the Crimson Cruiser, a line that goes straight to the quad from Mather, would be arriving in a matter of minutes. What seemed like a couple of minutes after the last time I checked, we saw a shuttle pull in. We bade farewell to Liam, and boarded the shuttle.
"At this point, I guess I should just go to the quad..." William began, "But I still really want to get dumplings!"
I spent the beginning of the ride trying to convince William to just take the shuttle to the quad with me since we had just eaten a nice meal with our friends, and also trying to convince him that he should just continue being a hermit and go to his room instead of making the effort to walk to get dumplings.
He remained skeptical, and I decided we would let fate decide. I handed him my mini CVS card so he could hide it in one of his pockets. I was then to try and guess what pocket it was in: if I guessed wrong, he would go get dumplings, and if I guessed right, he would go back to the quad with me.
Because I am left-handed, I defaulted to saying, "It's in your left pocket."
"NOOOOO!" William lamented. "It was in my right pocket! That means I'm going to get dumplings!"
"You know, William, sometimes when you do these random tests like these, after getting the result you find out what it is you really want," I said. "Just come back to the quad with me."
At that point we were nearing Widener, where he could have gotten off to go get dumplings, but I enticed him to stay and keep me company with a story about how I might have been a bit too sassy with the Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies of the Anthropology Department, and the shuttle drove on, to the quad.
Or so we assumed.
Instead of taking Garden St to go straight to the quad, it turned onto Mass Ave, driving by the law school. Sometimes it took this route, but William was unconvinced. He said, "Oh no. What if we're on the River House B shuttle? Or River House A? And the shuttle isn't actually going to the quad?" I tried to reassure him by saying, "The shuttle totally passes this way from time to time. It's gonna turn left on Linnaean St to go to the quad, just watch."
But then it didn't keep driving along Mass Ave and turn left on Linnaean St.
It turned right and then started heading down Oxford St, in a direction opposite from the quad.
William and I looked at each other. William then announced, "IT'S HEADING TOWARDS MEMORIAL HALL. IT'S NOT GOING TO THE QUAD AT ALL. WE'RE GETTING OFF AND GETTING DUMPLINGS."
We got into a heated argument about my mistake, how could I have led us to get on the wrong shuttle, how he can no longer trust me when it comes to shuttles, how the Crimson Cruiser doesn't actually exist on weeknights (IT DOES BECAUSE I TOOK IT FROM THE QUAD TO MATHER EARLIER IN THE EVENING), and we got off at Memorial Hall and saw that we had somehow boarded the Mather Express.
(I could have sworn that the app told me the Crimson Cruiser was coming and not the Mather Express, but it turns out that I wasn't aware that at that time of night, the Crimson Cruiser would no longer be running from Mather to the quad. The app should fix that.)
William swore to never let me hear the end of this incident and declared, "FATE spoke when you guessed where the CVS card was, Amanda! FATE BROUGHT US TO THESE DUMPLINGS. This is where we were meant to be all along!"
Though I had aspirations of returning to the quad right away after being out later than I like being out, I can't say that I was complaining about the prospect of dumplings. Since Memorial Hall was conveniently right next to the Women's Center, we headed over and enjoyed a late evening snack. Relishing the spicy dumplings I placed in a little red plastic cup, I couldn't help but think that this was one of the best mistakes I have ever made.
After sticking around for a short while, we walked over to Widener Library to take an actual shuttle to the quad. While we were laughing at the hilarity of what had just occurred, William told me, "This reminds me of a quote from the movie Kung Fu Panda. I think it goes, 'One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.' This fits that situation perfectly."
And that's why I decided to write this blog entry with that particular title.
This evening, I had my final thesis tutorial section with my group of fellow anthro concentrators of the semester. It took place in a part of campus on the other side from where I live, the quad; walking back to my room would take more than 30 minutes, it was night, and it was getting late, so taking the shuttle from the Mather shuttle stop wasn't a question. (Mather to the quad is basically as far as you can get on the Harvard College campus.)
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| Us at the end of the evening, with our tutorial leader in the back! |
I checked the shuttle app and saw that the Crimson Cruiser, a line that goes straight to the quad from Mather, would be arriving in a matter of minutes. What seemed like a couple of minutes after the last time I checked, we saw a shuttle pull in. We bade farewell to Liam, and boarded the shuttle.
"At this point, I guess I should just go to the quad..." William began, "But I still really want to get dumplings!"
I spent the beginning of the ride trying to convince William to just take the shuttle to the quad with me since we had just eaten a nice meal with our friends, and also trying to convince him that he should just continue being a hermit and go to his room instead of making the effort to walk to get dumplings.
He remained skeptical, and I decided we would let fate decide. I handed him my mini CVS card so he could hide it in one of his pockets. I was then to try and guess what pocket it was in: if I guessed wrong, he would go get dumplings, and if I guessed right, he would go back to the quad with me.
Because I am left-handed, I defaulted to saying, "It's in your left pocket."
"NOOOOO!" William lamented. "It was in my right pocket! That means I'm going to get dumplings!"
"You know, William, sometimes when you do these random tests like these, after getting the result you find out what it is you really want," I said. "Just come back to the quad with me."
At that point we were nearing Widener, where he could have gotten off to go get dumplings, but I enticed him to stay and keep me company with a story about how I might have been a bit too sassy with the Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies of the Anthropology Department, and the shuttle drove on, to the quad.
Or so we assumed.
Instead of taking Garden St to go straight to the quad, it turned onto Mass Ave, driving by the law school. Sometimes it took this route, but William was unconvinced. He said, "Oh no. What if we're on the River House B shuttle? Or River House A? And the shuttle isn't actually going to the quad?" I tried to reassure him by saying, "The shuttle totally passes this way from time to time. It's gonna turn left on Linnaean St to go to the quad, just watch."
But then it didn't keep driving along Mass Ave and turn left on Linnaean St.
It turned right and then started heading down Oxford St, in a direction opposite from the quad.
William and I looked at each other. William then announced, "IT'S HEADING TOWARDS MEMORIAL HALL. IT'S NOT GOING TO THE QUAD AT ALL. WE'RE GETTING OFF AND GETTING DUMPLINGS."
We got into a heated argument about my mistake, how could I have led us to get on the wrong shuttle, how he can no longer trust me when it comes to shuttles, how the Crimson Cruiser doesn't actually exist on weeknights (IT DOES BECAUSE I TOOK IT FROM THE QUAD TO MATHER EARLIER IN THE EVENING), and we got off at Memorial Hall and saw that we had somehow boarded the Mather Express.
(I could have sworn that the app told me the Crimson Cruiser was coming and not the Mather Express, but it turns out that I wasn't aware that at that time of night, the Crimson Cruiser would no longer be running from Mather to the quad. The app should fix that.)
William swore to never let me hear the end of this incident and declared, "FATE spoke when you guessed where the CVS card was, Amanda! FATE BROUGHT US TO THESE DUMPLINGS. This is where we were meant to be all along!"
Though I had aspirations of returning to the quad right away after being out later than I like being out, I can't say that I was complaining about the prospect of dumplings. Since Memorial Hall was conveniently right next to the Women's Center, we headed over and enjoyed a late evening snack. Relishing the spicy dumplings I placed in a little red plastic cup, I couldn't help but think that this was one of the best mistakes I have ever made.
After sticking around for a short while, we walked over to Widener Library to take an actual shuttle to the quad. While we were laughing at the hilarity of what had just occurred, William told me, "This reminds me of a quote from the movie Kung Fu Panda. I think it goes, 'One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.' This fits that situation perfectly."
And that's why I decided to write this blog entry with that particular title.
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| William and me on the real shuttle heading to the quad, happy from our dumpling feast and that the thesis tutorial class is over for the semester |
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