The 2021 Senior Perspectives is the 16th in a series of annual collections. Senior captains and representatives of teams at Harvard have been invited to contribute viewpoints based on personal experience from both their senior seasons and full varsity careers at Harvard.

Zeth Dean
Hometown: Lowell, Mich.
Concentration: Integrative Biology
House Affiliation: Lowell

My experience at Harvard on the wrestling team has been nothing short of a dream come true. The moments shared with my teammates, coaches and everyone else in the Harvard community are ones that I will cherish forever. Over the course of the last four years, Harvard University and Harvard wrestling have certainly shaped me into the individual that I am  today. These experiences, while filled with a multitude of both triumphs and defeats, have built me into the individual I am today, ready to take a leap of faith into life after graduation. Without  a doubt, Coach Weiss and the rest of the Harvard wrestling staff have taken me under their wing and provided me with an ample skill set to have success in life.

More than anything else, I think that the value Harvard has taught me as a student-athlete these past four years is how to fight through adversity. Whether it be struggles in the classroom for big midterms, hard practices, tough losses on the mat or unfortunate injuries, through all of this adversity came an amount of personal growth that I would have never thought possible. Moreover, without the right coaches, professors, mentors, teammates and peers around me, I would have never had the ability, nor the confidence to grow into the individual I am today. It's this sense of community and support that made my time at Harvard as a student-athlete so special, and what leaves me cherishing every moment spent on this campus with my teammates and classmates.

While my senior year was certainly a large change to the dynamic of my time at Harvard, and the way I was able to interact, learn and spend time with the Harvard community – I think that the many unforeseen changes and challenges also provided valuable growth opportunities. Finding a way to take classes, be part of a team and interact with friends in the isolated world of the pandemic made me grow as a person an unbelievable amount. Much like other times throughout college, the pandemic brought with it much adversity. The process of finding a way to overcome this adversity without a doubt forced me to grow and learn about myself.

Thus, my Harvard experience as an athlete has been the most impactful experience of my life not because it was always happy and easy, but because it provided me with some of the most adversity I've ever encountered and the right environment to grow beyond these hard times with the people and community of support around me. While the good memories will never be forgotten, it is some of the harder ones that make my time at Harvard and as a Harvard student-athlete an integral part of my being, and something that has prepared me so well for life after Harvard. Thank you to the many wonderful people who have made Harvard and Harvard wrestling so special to me.