Devi R. Nair is the President of Harvard College Republicans.

Dear New Harvard Republicans

It was the fall of 2012. A choking waft of liberalism filled the air as eager freshmen lined their windowsills with blue Obama posters. And as I stood in the middle of the yard, drowning in this sea of cerulean, only one phrase rang loudly in my head: “You’re gonna come back a liberal.”

I superstitiously began wearing my Texas necklace everyday to ward away liberal spirits. A Bush-Cheney bumper sticker was hidden away in my desk drawer—a false reassurance that I was not abandoning my roots. And to prove that I was just as politically inclined as my new Harvard peers, I got hold of a Romney poster…which was proudly displayed under a stack of textbooks in the corner of my common room.

I was the ultimate closet Republican.

Or at least for four days I was. Lured in at the Activities Fair by the “Behind Enemy Lines Since 1888” shirts and a Reagan-red election map, I found myself copying my new Harvard email address onto the GOP-open mailing list. And just like that, I began my new college life as a member of the Harvard Republican Club.