In 2015, a friend at college wrote a low-stakes blog post profiling me as an eligible bachelor.
10 years later, this is still my favorite article ever written about me. It is vainishly flattering in a way that makes me laugh, and it is fun to bring it back onto my personal site. More than anything, though, I like having it preserved somewhere I control. I would be sad to see it disappear from the Her Campus archives someday.
Rereading it now, a decade later, I’m struck by how consistent the portrayal feels. The piece captured the version of me I hoped to be at 20, and it still reads as a rose-tinted but directionally accurate description of who I am today. It highlights my instinct for self-improvement, which has only gotten stronger. It quotes Tomas Reimers, who cofounded Graphite with me five years after he said those words.
Best of all is how many of the sentiments at the end still hold up. The idea that I would always make time for the people who matter. The dream of working with friends and building something together. The belief that I am satisfied with who I am in the moment, while knowing that I am always adjusting the target. Those lines felt aspirational then. They feel grounding now. Much has changed in ten years, but the core feels familiar. If this description is still recognizable another decade from now, I will count that as a win.
Original Article
The following profile was originally published by Her Campus at Harvard in 2015. Read the original article here.
At 6'4" with a sculpted physique, boyish smile, and refreshing lack of pretense, Gregory Foster is bucking the stereotypes associated with CS. A stylish guy, he wears his amber locks perfectly coiffed, his clothes color-coordinated, and his confidence with a touch of self-awareness.
"The first thing you think when you see Greg is, 'this kid must be a final club guy,'" said blockmate Juliana Garcia-Mejia '17. "And then you meet him and he's so unlike that…he's just a very genuine guy." He also possesses a rare balance of ambition tempered with kindness. "He's so ambitious…but he also cares so much about the people around him," continued Juliana. "It's a selfless ambition, and selflessness and ambition in the same person is a rare quality to have."
Gregory shapes his life around self-improvement. "Living with him is funny because he picks a thing to improve upon, and then he just does it," said close friend and summer roommate Tomas Reimers '17. A voracious reader and learner, Gregory is never standing still. He prioritizes friendship over everything (even his grades), regularly hosts dinner parties to be around those he cares about, and is always asking himself, "How can I be a better person?"
One example of his commitment towards self-improvement is weight-lifting. A competitive weight-lifter in high school, Gregory hits the weights every morning at 6:30 AM, before the sun even rises from its nighttime slumber. "It's the most therapeutic thing I can do to keep me sane in a busy environment," he said of his daily routine, characteristically modest about the drive with which he lives every aspect of his life.
Another one of his passions is computer science. As a 16-year-old looking for a job, he wanted a more creative way of earning gas money than bagging groceries at the local supermarket—so he sat down for a summer and taught himself how to code. Since then he's developed and sold thousands of copies of his iPhone apps, taken a multitude of computer science classes, and increased his involvement in the CS community on campus.
One thing led to another, and eventually Gregory found himself in Silicon Valley with a highly marketable set of skills. This past summer he interned as a data engineer at Airbnb, where, according to Reimers, "He was the only person in the entire company to wear a suit, including the CEO."
In terms of personal identity, Gregory is very adamant about fighting negative stereotypes in tech. "There's weird stigmas associated with every major, and with CS there's a stigma about how often you shower," joked Gregory. Well-dressed, extraverted, humble, and kind, Gregory is certainly an anomaly among stereotypically gifted programmers.
Relationships-wise, the current bachelor is looking for someone who can challenge his way of thinking, telling Her Campus that what he's most attracted to in another person is "sass." According to Reimers, he's also a romantic at heart—one who "used to take a red rose on every date." Whereas Harvard students have an overwhelming tendency to prioritize personal success over relationships, Gregory told Her Campus that he will always make time for the people that matter most in his life.
In the future, Gregory plans to work as an entrepreneur. "I would love to see myself working with friends and running a company," he said. Motivated enough to know what he wants, he sees his life in terms of how close he is to his ideal self: "I'm very satisfied with who I am at the moment—but it's a moving target."
Article by Yehong Zhu, originally published on Her Campus at Harvard, 2017.