
Only you know which risk you want to take: don’t tell him and risk having no future relationship with him or do tell him and risk rejection. You could start by making contact gently and see what vibes you get, and go on from there.

Answering questions at Boston College O’Neill Library

Only you know which risk you want to take: don’t tell him and risk having no future relationship with him or do tell him and risk rejection. You could start by making contact gently and see what vibes you get, and go on from there.

Given the quantity of songs, poems, paintings, sculptures, novels, films, and academic studies & books in a wide variety of fields, I think I’d have to say: both, and nobody knows quite where the balance lies. Some subject terms to try in a library search: interpersonal relations, attachment behavior, intimacy, love, desire… just imagine how many books representing how many perspectives there are!

The best thing you can do for an old friend is to take the first step to making the meeting possible. Perhaps on parting you felt what this poem by Du Fu, a Chinese poet, expresses:
A Toast for Men Yun-Ch’ing
BY DU FU
TRANSLATED BY FLORENCE AYSCOUGH
Illimitable happiness,
But grief for our white heads.
We love the long watches of the night, the red candle.
It would be difficult to have too much of meeting,
Let us not be in hurry to talk of separation.
But because the Heaven River will sink,
We had better empty the wine-cups.
To-morrow, at bright dawn, the world’s business will entangle us.
We brush away our tears,
We go—East and West.

I highly recommend bookmarking the BC Events Calendar, events.bc.edu, which is chock full of free events, such as lectures and readings in the Lowell Series. Also: club sports, clubs, and all the books & DVD’s at O’Neill Library. There are also a number of off campus things which are free for BC students, such as tickets to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Harvard Museum of Natural History, and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. More details: bit.ly/BC-mus-passes.

What springs to mind (because I’m kind of an old wall) is Gilligan & Ginger, but if you don’t like that, here are 30 more ideas: https://bit.ly/duo-red.

This is a great question – and it’s not easy! I suggest connecting with the Connors Family Learning Center (bit.ly/BC-connors). They may be able to help you strategize both generally and specifically for certain essay assignments. Good luck! You can do this!

Very sympathetic on existential crises. You know that’s impossible, right? I’d hate for you to be down on yourself for not being able to do something no one can. Here’s a thought: make yourself a list of the things you want to know about the most, maybe a top 10. If you spend a couple of years on each you’ll know way more than most people.

Focus on the act more than the self: are you doing something helpful or harmful? Do helpful acts & avoid harmful acts, keep reminding yourself of this, and the rest will follow.

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting more and more students from China over the years; I’ve also heard from many other students coming from other countries, and American students returning home from study abroad. All of this mixing brings new perspectives to home countries and extraordinary possibilities for change.

Although I wish it weren’t the case, racism does persist at Boston College. For an article detailing one Black alumni group’s reflections on race at Boston College, see “The Tenth” https://bit.ly/3ScJnPC. Like The Tenth, many student groups and staff members at Boston College continue to make strides in anti-racist activism today. The student group FACES is a student-run anti-racist organization, and their instagram is @faces.council. Remember that institutional support is available through the Office of Institutional Diversity (https://bit.ly/3TzU6EP). Everyone has a right to feel a sense of belonging here.
![He's 35 years older than me - we're in love - will it work? [reply] No sis!](https://library.bc.edu/answerwall/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/aw10172022-04.jpg)
I agree with the commenter, that you should be cautious. With such a large age difference, you are subject to a lot of power dynamics that aren’t awesome and may not be as readily apparent to you as to him. Please tread carefully.