The Falcon | Volume 81, Issue 26 |
Published 6/02/10 | Log In |
Seeking truth instead of obtaining answers
Graduation, new perspectives
By MICHAEL DUDLEY, Opinions Editor
Published: June 2, 2010
Things change. Over the past four years, I have seen friends come and go, graduate, drop out and get married. I have made friendships and watched them dissolve and fall apart. I have been in and out of love. I have switched majors multiple times. I have watched my faith go from being in crisis to non-existent to flickering once more.
It has been a hard row to hoe, but it has been worth it every single mile. I would not trade my time here, nor the friends I have made, nor the experiences I have had for anything.
I do have my complaints about this university. I think lifestyle expectations should be changed in favor of legal-aged adults who want to drink or smoke off campus. I wish that Seattle Pacific were more supportive of its homosexual community. But despite such disagreements, this is the first place I ever began to feel like I belonged, that felt like home.
I came here hoping to escape repressive paradigms and situations in the Georgia town in which I grew up. I believed a liberal and artistic city like Seattle would solve my problems, that my faith would be rekindled, that I would graduate with a career, a marriage and a life laid out before me. As of now, none of those have happened. What have I gained?
My time here has taught me so much, but many of the lessons learned have had nothing to do with academics. I know that I am graduating not only a more educated person, but a wiser one at that. You cannot put a price on wisdom. SPU has opened me to a world of learning and exploration, igniting a fire inside. A good education teaches you how little you know and stokes your passion to close the gap between what you do and do not know.
Henry David Thoreau once wrote, "Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth." I have not found the answers to the questions I had when I came to college; questions about life, love and God, careers, families, mortgages.
But I have learned that the answers we seek and truth are not always the same. I do not want answers anymore. I want truth. Too often, I have looked for answers that just confirm what I already wanted to believe. My diploma is not an answer, but a commission to search for that elusive truth I want more than anything. And my heart is filled with gratitude toward the students and faculty, professors and peers I have met at this university who have helped me on my way.
The SPU Web site states that this is a university committed to graduating students who demonstrate personal character, who will engage the culture and change the world. But I honestly do not know if I am graduating any better of a man than I was four years ago. I have hurt people, I have stumbled, I have fought addictions and I have lost faith. I want to believe I have matured, to believe I have integrity and character. But how does one quantify such things? Maybe SPU failed in making me better or maybe I failed SPU in trying.
I came here wanting to engage the culture, to change the world. But in the end, I think maybe the world changed me. But I do not think that is necessarily a bad thing because how can anyone hope to change the world if they do not take part in it? Now, after four years, it is time to join that world.
See you on the other side.
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In our youth, we have grand expectations of how college is going to be and what we later find is so much different. People change, our relationships come and go and we love and lose those who mean the most to us.
These expectations and thoughts later lead into the workplace where we become even more confused as expectations again fail us. Is it us or is it the system? Am I changing or are those around me changing?
All I can say is that it's a wonderful journey that is all about perspective. It's all about perspective, the good thing is you have control over it. I find that the more I try to obtain something the harder it is to achieve, but when I focus on something and let it come naturally, it usually does.
I respect your letter as it may not be most enlightening to those at SPU but you were honest and truthful, it's that truth that you speak of is what we are all seeking and yearning.
All the best the future has to offer.
LLL