Alexandra Petri

All children, except two, grow up: Peter Pan and Donald Trump Jr.

By isolating ourselves from those with whose opinions we disagree, we lose the ability to defend our beliefs.

Nearly everything faith-related that I have done at Harvard has been followed by free food, from going to services at Harvard's Episcopal Chaplaincy to attending a day of interfaith discussion and dialogue hosted by the university chaplains in the fall.

Being a person of faith is just another of a wide range of fun activities available to those who come to Harvard. When Harvard boasts to admitted students of its more than 40 religious groups, it does so in the same vein that it boasts of its nearly dozen a cappella groups.

Bills ought to be passed with deliberation by committees. Change should be achieved in a bipartisan manner. Incrementally, day by day, we should reach a consensus - not perfect, by any means - but something that we can be proud of, nonetheless.

People talk to pass the time, share information, and entertain each other.

Forced to confront a reptile or an international financial crisis, I'll take the reptile every time.

If you want to be famous because you do something well or badly, be it singing while fat or hitting balls of various shapes and hues, you have to be prepared to divulge. We live in the age of the chronic overshare.

The problem with technology, as with fashion, is that it's impossible to be 'in' forever.

Stereotyped as convention-going, pocket-protector-wearing, chess-playing, infrequently-showering types, nerds are one of our society's most ridiculed groups. And, for a university with an international reputation as a bastion of intellectualism, Harvard is startlingly devoid of them.

I tend to process stuff by making jokes about it. It's something that makes me annoying to be around in times of real crisis.

It is possible to assemble a narrative for yourself, brokenly, on social media, only seeing what you want to look at.