sea change

"Change is the way of life."
-John F. Kennedy

As the semester finally begins to wind down, it comes time for the annual "What did I learn" segment. As many of you know, it was my first semester living away from home. The first month I treated it like a vacation. There was free flying booze, lots of parties, little work to be done and all I could think about was how much this resembled a trip to the beach. However, eventually I woke up and realized that this wasn't a vacation at all. Not only had the difficulty of the work increased, but my reaction to that increase in difficulty wasn't at all sustainable. Even now, I sometimes feel like I'm just wading in the velvet sea of incredibly intelligent people and I'm struggling to make it out of the middle of the pack. My life up to this point has usually revolved around the "big fish in a little pond" metaphor that everyone loves to use. I attended a large high school, but I purposely took easy classes so I would never actually have to challenge myself and be around smart people. Don't ask me why, but I've found that I can barely tolerate the overly intellectual types. Now though, I'm surrounded by them. I used to think that I was a very good writer until I got into my English 50 class this year and realized that every single person in there was a good writer. In my micro and macro economic classes hundreds of people nod their heads when the professor explains a concept. I thought I was the only one who used to do that. After talking to several people who have been around the big college atmosphere much longer than I have, I've realized that there are two ways to get ahead: either do something completely outlandish or be hard working and willing to change things to better yourself.

The conversation started with the discussion over the students who wore the costumes of the Virginia Tech students to Halloween. While it is technically true that this is a matter of free speech, it is also a matter of morality. I completely believe in allowing people to express themselves in ways that they see fitting, but I think that it is important to realize that dancing on the line between morally right and wrong is completely different than overstepping it. A group of us concluded that doing such outlandish things would get a person noticed for five minutes and then carry a tarnished reputation for the rest of your life.

On the other other hand, I think that I've realized that the key to breaking out of the pack up here is to have a completely open mind for things. In the past, I'd often dismiss people's ideas because of the way that they dress or how they acted in public. I'll admit that I still slip up occasionally and think "God damn, that kid is a freak for sure." Part of the growth process is learning to get past your initial impression of someone and try to get to actually know them. In my next year and a half up here I figure that I'll run into many unique characters(as I already have). Even if it's just briefly talking with them or building a solid friendship, I think that we can learn something from everyone. Now whether it is a good quality or terrible one is for each of us to decide for our own. The people are out there and the lessons are waiting to be learned as long as we keep ourselves open to the change that can occur.

Until next time,

mh