My name is Dylan Driscoll–Class of 2024–and this is a little about me.
I come from a large military family that traces its roots back to World War I, when my great-great-grandfather enlisted in the US Army shortly after he immigrated from Slovakia. He ultimately “died” from Spanish Flu, but was then found alive in the morgue and ran straight back to the conflict. This should say something of my family’s absurd level of stubbornness. From this auspicious start, almost every member of my family has either served or married someone who has—including my grandmother in the Army Air Corps of WWII, who loves to remind me it only took her two years to reach Sergeant against my five.
After growing up on a dozen military bases across Europe and the American Southeast, I knew I wanted to enlist. Naturally, my parents were very strongly against this after seeing the effects a decade of war had had on many young soldiers and their families. They refused to sign for me at seventeen. Where some young adults might spite their parents with a tattoo or a piercing, I elected for something more permanent and scarring by joining the Marine Corps a year later. I went on to spend the next six and half years traveling the globe as a Marine Security Guard stationed at several US embassies.
My original plan, like so many other good Marines, was to exit The Corps and join the Army as an officer. This changed when a close friend aggressively suggested that I apply to Harvard. I had never considered going to college up north–-let alone the most prestigious one in the world. Against the odds of that year’s 0.8% acceptance rate, I was accepted as a transfer student in 2020. My plans were derailed a bit by the pandemic and I first arrived on campus in the fall of 2021.
Back in 2018, when I was still working as a bouncer at a Florida honkytonk breaking up fistfights for minimum wage, I could never have predicted where I would be now. I will carry with me the people I’ve met and the experiences I’ve had at Harvard for the rest of my life. Most rewarding of all has been my work to make HUVO a welcoming community for veterans at Harvard – I hope to see that legacy continue when I leave.
After graduation, I’ll be moving to Northern California for some much-needed sunshine and to pursue a career in project management in the defense aerospace sector.