What a Piece of Work is College
College is hard. That’s not to say that it’s not enjoyable at times. But it is hard. BYU is a wonderful university that most people should be very proud to get accepted into. Like it is stated in the Oration of the Dignity of Man, we are born with infinite possibilities to accomplish great things and be somebody great, depending on your moral and intellectual stamina. Similarly, we are metaphorically born into university life with infinite possibilities that all depend on, well, us.
Coming to college, it felt a little scary leaving all of my success entirely up to myself. Classes are more difficult and there are the added stresses of making new friends, work and basically just having to be a responsible adult without your parents looking over your shoulder a lot of the time. However, during my first year, I sometimes found myself blaming the results I was seeing in my college life on the circumstances surrounding me. Humanism says otherwise. We are completely and solely responsible for our individual successes and failures and if we fail we just need to get back up and try harder or differently.
It’s also important to remember that striving for greatness doesn’t mean that you need to always get a 4.0 grade average. Striving for greatness, for me, meant getting into BYU Women’s chorus and getting to sing in general conference, it meant taking my roommate out to dinner after she failed a test, it meant setting a goal to be fit and exercising almost every weekday, it meant studying as hard as I could so I could finish each semester knowing that I tried my very best. It was those things that made me greater. Not necessarily academic things, but life things. College gives you every opportunity to be a great person. As put in the words of Mirandola “Oh wondrous and unsurpassable felicity of man, to whom it is granted to have what he chooses, to be what he wills to be!” So let’s go out and make ourselves better through every opportunity given to us.
I find that what you say Fay is very true: each of us struggles with the concept of being our best selves. One thing you hinted at that I think is so crucial to our success is seeing mistakes as stepping stones to improvement. They should not be justified, but we should acknowledge them so we can not repeat them. When we do take charge of all aspects of our lives, we will be able to ultimately succeed.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciated the examples you gave of redefining success in terms of "not necessarily college things, but LIFE things." It reminded me of Gabe's post about perfectionism and focus. This is something I want to be better at.
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