As the saying goes, opposites attract. I can’t really describe how our friendship formed, but somewhere between one fortunate bus ride back to Newton, and our abrupt senior year photos in front of Gasson me and a “quintessential Mainer” formed a close friendship. 

We spoke mainly about the different classes that we were in at the business school when we first met, however pretty soon we realized that the two of us shared a similar sense of humor and interest in business, politics and philosophy. Pretty soon, the two of us would grab a meal at least once a day on the Newton campus. We also would share interesting books, and engage in [un]healthy political debates. One gesture I really appreciated from him was after I had completed the Dao De Jing, and mentioned it to him, he actually read the book allowing for the two of us to have a bunch of great conversations on it. We even made a pretty cool analogy using the legend of Prometheus.

Our friendship for sure peaked this year, where we were direct roommates, competitors in the elevator pitch competition (though we had agreed beforehand to split the profits no matter who won [he did, haha]), and co-founders of Backstrapper. This past year has allowed for me to gain an even greater insight into this really great friend of mine. He has shown me first hand the importance of hard work and “sticktoitiveness.” While the two of us are very different, I think it is that very difference that allows for us to have such a rich friendship.

Memorable quotes

“If you do the right thing 100 percent of the time, you don’t have to worry about things not working out.”