Senior Spotlight
Jacob Coleman is completing his BA in French at Haverford this Spring '21
The Proust Questionnaire
__1.__What is your idea of perfect happiness?
If I had any idea of that, I probably wouldn’t still be pursuing higher education.
__2.__What is your greatest fear?
Waking up one morning to find that I’m out of coffee and it’s not on the grocery list. This has unfortunately been known to happen.
__3.__What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Hypocrisy and cynicism.
__4.__What is the trait you most deplore in others?
The same, of course.
__5.__Which living person do you most admire?
At the moment, YouTube chef Ann Reardon, for her macarons.
__6.__What is your greatest extravagance?
Paper books over Kindle.
__7.__What is your current state of mind?
Is « en avoir au ras du bol » a state of mind?
__8.__What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Being « right ».
__9.__On what occasion do you lie?
I’d have to lie to answer this, so I’ll defer.
__10.__What do you most dislike about your appearance?
Whatever it is, it certainly isn’t helped by chronic lack of sleep.
__11.__Which living person do you most despise?
I couldn’t imagine any answer other than « myself ».
__12.__What is the quality you most like in a man?
Interesting conversation.
__13.__What is the quality you most like in a woman?
The same, of course.
__14.__Which words or phrases (in French) do you most overuse?
Effectivement, plus ou moins
__15.__What or who is the greatest love of your life?
See question 11.
__16.__When and where were you happiest?
Over a year and a half ago, and not someplace I’d want on a website.
__17.__Which talent would you most like to have?
Speaking (better) Italian.
__18.__If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Well, I’d like to improve my Italian.
__19.__What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Solo travel.
__20.__If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
Maybe one of those birds that fly between the poles every year.
__21.__Where would you most like to live?
Shouldn’t my choice of major make it obvious?
__22.__What is your most treasured possession?
A few choice books.
__23.__What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Something I’m sure we’ve all experienced over the past year.
__24.__What is your favorite occupation?
At the moment, watching « Love Island UK ».
__25.__What is your most marked characteristic?
Stubbornness, maybe.
__26.__What do you most value in your friends?
Loyalty.
__27.__Who are your favorite French/francophone writers?
Colette, Rimbaud, Sand, Montaigne, Krysinska.
__28.__Who is your hero of French/francophone fiction?
Certainly not a hero, but Célestine R—.
__29.__Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Probably some unnamed peasant somewhere, just like most of us.
__30.__Who are your heroes in real life?
I’d have to say most of them would be friends rather than historical figures.
__31.__What are your favorite names?
Emmanuelle
__32.__What is it that you most dislike?
Misplaced confidence.
__33.__What is your greatest regret?
This feels like a more personal question than all the rest, somehow.
__34.__How would you like to die?
I’d be disappointed if it weren’t at least exciting.
__35.__What is your motto?
Probably something to do with not taking things too seriously.
The Haverford Questionnaire
- What is your greatest memory of your time at Haverford?
Getting a decent grade in stats.
- What is your greatest memory from study abroad?
Les alignements de Carnac.
- Which F/F author do you most identify with?
Probably the one I spent a year reading/writing about.
- Why did you choose to study French?
See question 25.
- What is the title of your senior thesis?
« Écrire l’immortalité: La nature et la transcendance chez Colette et Hannah Arendt »
- What is your funniest or most awkward cross-cultural moment?
Trying to use ridiculous anachronisms like « puis-je » and the subjunctive imperfect in conversation because I had read them in books.
- Which expression or word is your favorite in the French language?
Franchement, mostly because of how people use it.
- Which expression or word is your least favorite in the French language?
All the filler words I can never get the hang of (« genre »).
