<p>Yes, I did. I have a pretty nice life, and I don’t long to be 18 again or anything, but the first few months of Yale were among the best times of my life. It was all so exciting and awesome, the people were so smart, the resources unbelievable. I would go sit in Beinecke or the L&B Room at Sterling and be breathless that it was all there for me to use. </p>
<p>It didn’t stay great all the time. Like everyone else, I made mistakes, I disappointed myself, not everything went the way I imagined it. But it was still the greatest year of my life up to then . . . and each of the next three years was better.</p>
<p>That was a long time ago, but I have heard pretty similar things from recent alumni, too. I did know people who didn’t like it. One of my freshman roommates dropped out and never returned, and two people I knew transferred out. But they were few and far between. Part of what made it great was that everyone was loving it most of the time. Hunt is right – there wasn’t any great air of competition with other students. A few people behaved that way, but they were sort of ostracized for it – it was a very fringe position. Most people just dug each other all the time.</p>