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Note: This is a slightly longer version
of a column written for the September 2004 issue of Blue & White, a monthly magazine published by UNC students. |
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The Role
of a Student . . . Carpe diem!
Make the world a better place because you were here. You matter! Take your life seriously. Try to do something every day that makes you smile at your own image in the mirror the next morning. Be honest! Be fair! Work hard! Be decisive and be brave. Don’t mimic Hamlet. Errors of omission are almost always more costly than errors of commission. Sitting on the sidelines is a waste of your talents. Commit to your decisions, but don’t get in a rut. If you are knocked down, get up. If you err, cut your losses by remedying your errors as quickly as you can. Life is a moveable feast. You have much to learn, and much to digest. Be awed, but not overwhelmed. Become wiser than you are, and more knowledgeable. Attend class faithfully. [Most of you are younger and healthier than your professors. Set a goal of attending class as regularly as they do.] Study diligently, and be humbled by how much you will never know or understand, no matter how hard you try. Cultivate your talents, and share your good fortune with our less fortunate brothers and sisters. Don’t squander your gifts. Be active. Recognize your obligations to the rest of humankind, and to generations yet unborn. Even if you can’t change the entire world, you can change your neighborhood – and your neighborhood can be very large. Be kind. To yourself. To those you love, and will come to love. To your children. To the people you have met and will meet. And to the lives you will touch even if you never meet those touched. This is class A ball. You are here because you are bright and have worked hard. You will succeed in the major leagues if you continue to work hard. "Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration." Thomas Alva Edison Your personal characteristics are far more important for the course of your life than are the specific classes you take or your college major. By the time you graduate, you should know how to read critically, think analytically, write clearly, do a bit of math, and speak cogently and confidently whether to an individual or to a large group. You should understand the benefits of being both decisive and committed. Most of all, you should know how to work. Random
Thoughts and Musings . . . . . .
. . . From those to whom much is given,
much is required. President John F. Kennedy[1] On the way to a golf course at the crack of dawn a few years back, a friend asked, “If you could be born at any time in history, when would you choose?” I spent little time before responding, “Tomorrow would probably be a great day.” Tomorrow has come, and it truly is a wonderful time. We who now live, work, and study in Chapel Hill often take for granted technologies and arrays of goods unknown and unimagined by most people of times past and places distant. An almost endless menu of interesting activities, people to treasure, and creature comforts await you – modern health care, rapid and convenient mobility, massive amounts of entertainment and information. And we seldom take time to appreciate the freedom we have to choose from this menu – freedom almost unfathomable to even the elite of earlier times. In part through your own efforts, life should be even better for your generation than it has been for the generations of your parents and professors. I hope that, upon reflection, you would answer the preceding question much as I did. Tomorrow is probably a very good day. The Blue&White recently asked me to address, “What Should a Professor Expect from a Student?” I have been unable to resist answering the B&W question with language that sounds like a commencement speech but hope that you will, nevertheless, take my words to heart. Although the B&W question and the question my friend asked might seem quite different, their answers are closely related. ======================================================== What Should Profs Expect? In part, being in college reflects your skill at selecting a family. Most professors expect you to recognize the rich set of opportunities available to you. You are privileged. In a nutshell, appreciate the sacrifices others have made so that you could attend college. Our ancestors collectively ensured that their children inherited a better world than that into which they were born. Your parents have sacrificed to help you become who you are. But you are indebted to many people besides our predecessors and your immediate family. Taxpayers, many far less prosperous than you, have supported you in the past, and are supporting your education now. And your teachers, past and present, truly view the parts of you that they helped shape as parts of their own legacies to the world. But you are much more than the projections of others and their expectations. You have good brains, and most of you are healthy. You probably have reasonably good work habits. The following is only a partial list of what a professor should expect from you, and what you should expect from yourself. ======================================================== Life is not a dress rehearsal. unknown 1.
You matter! Take your life seriously. Try
to do something every day that makes you smile at your own image in the
mirror the next morning. Be honest! Be fair! Work hard! To try to be safe everywhere is to
be strong nowhere. Winston Churchill 2.
Be decisive and be brave. Don’t mimic
Hamlet. Errors of omission are almost always more costly than errors of
commission. Sitting on the sidelines is a waste of your talents. Commit to
your decisions, but don’t get in a rut. If you are knocked down, get up. If
you err, cut your losses by remedying your errors as quickly as you can. Wisdom begins in wonder. Socrates 3.
Life is a moveable feast. You have much to
learn, and much to digest. Be awed, but not overwhelmed. Become wiser than
you are, and more knowledgeable. Attend class faithfully. [Most of you are
younger and healthier than your professors. Set a goal of attending class as
regularly as they do.] Study diligently, and be humbled by how much you will
never know or understand, no matter how hard you try. I did the best I could with what I
had. Justice Thurgood Marshall 4.
Cultivate your talents, and share your
good fortune with our less fortunate brothers and sisters. Don’t squander
your gifts. Be active. Recognize your obligations to the rest of humankind, and
to generations yet unborn. Even if you can’t change the entire world, you can
change your neighborhood – and your neighborhood can be very large. Perform random acts of kindness. bumper sticker 5.
Be kind. To yourself. To those you love,
and will come to love. To your children. To the people you have met and will
meet. And to the lives you will touch even if you never meet those touched. Carpe diem!
Make the world a better place because you were here. |