It’s funny how this college thing works.
You enter as a confused 17 or 18-year-old trying too hard and wondering how it’s possible that the next four years of your life will dictate what you do for the rest of it. Four years later, you leave as a confused 21 or 22-year-old and wonder out how the past years have prepared you for a lifetime.
After contemplating, you’re even more confused. You end up asking questions like, “How do I take what I learned in this class, and apply it to whatever my career is? Wait, do I even have a career?” Or something along the lines of “Is it possible that over the last four years, I’ve learned absolutely nothing?”
I may not remember what I learned in PHI 105 (I P/NC-ed that class), or the correct way to frame a video interview (sorry Rick), or how to use a comma correctly (deepest apologies Selvin), but I do know that my time here has prepared me for the rest of my life, in which career will play just a small part. During the past four years, I’ve changed majors three times, pledged a fraternity, gotten kicked out of school, made the dean’s list four times, seen Stony Brook Athletics go from pathetic to respectable, written a column, made friends I’ll keep for a lifetime, met the girl I want to spend the rest of my life with, along with so many other things. It’s these things that prepare you for life.
A few weeks ago, after the banquet, the School of Journalism upperclassmen threw a graduation party for ourselves. It was held at the house of a person whom I’d never thought I’d become friends with. I did shots with a kid we call Breezy, I drank Coronas with a 30-something-year old who came back to school to be a journalist, played beer pong against a kid with blue hair, and one of the shots of the night was dedicated to a professor we all know as the “Silver Fox.” These people and countless others, along with my own highs and lows, have made a huge difference in my life–you should do the things you love.
This campus is not blessed with the history of a Duke or a Michigan. But you know what? They started from nothing too. During my time here, I’ve witnessed the birth of many traditions, and even taken part in creating some of them. And it’s the same as life-it’s what you make out of it. Too often I’ve heard people say how much they hated Stony Brook– myself included–and how they couldn’t wait to get out of here because it sucked. I can’t wait to get out of here for a different reason: I can’t wait to go live my life, and figure out what I love.
Stony Brook students, I leave you with this. Mark Twain once said, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
Everyone should explore all they can, dream what they love, and I promise you, you will discover your future-you won’t be confused anymore.
