WHEN YOU read this, I will be within hours of becoming a college graduate. I probably will be having the same shiver down my spine I just got writing those words. All of us sitting on the Lawn, even those who found jobs in this awful economy, will ask, what do I do now?
I could write a whole column of advice to those behind me, or what I loved most about college. But most of you reading this are graduating, which puts us all in the same boat. So instead, I'm going to talk about my hopes for the type of people we, the graduating class of 2002, will become.
First, I hope we all remember there's a big world out there. Many of us have studied abroad, and it opened our eyes. For those who haven't, Sept. 11 was a wake-up call to the importance of the rest of the world. In fact, interest in classes on foreign affairs skyrocketed this year.
It is not enough, however, just to take a class or two and go right back to our parochial ways. In our adult lives, an important part of being a good American citizen is paying attention to what is going on in the world instead of putting your head in the sand and letting your congressman handle it, which is what most Americans do. We can do better, and I hope we will.
And while we're on the subject of elected officials, I wonder how many of you voted in the last election, and one step further, how many of you will register and vote in your new cities. Probably a minority. We've all heard about the political apathy of our generation, but the awakening of activism at this school over my time here gives me cause to think that maybe we are a little more interested in politics than the average person. I hope you will prove me right.
I also hope we will stay connected to those coming along behind us. As a student here, I have benefited in many ways from the connections I have made and the mentoring I have received. If there's one thing I've learned at this place, it's that no matter how smart you are, you only get places by having people take an interest in you.
I have benefited so much from those people. At the beginning of my second year, I was academically wishy-washy until I went to office hours for a class I liked and a professor offered to be my advisor.
Since then, Prof. Quandt has pushed me out of my inertia to study abroad and write a distinguished majors' thesis, the latter of which I would never have done without his suggestion. I am now going on to an exciting job that I wouldn't have dreamed of two years ago.
The alumni of this school also have helped by providing valuable connections for me. Through Career Services, I have talked to people I didn't even know to get information on internships, how to get jobs and my future workplace.
Helping younger Wahoos network their way through is something we all can do as alumni, even if we aren't big shots like our professors. And, unlike giving big checks, which some of us can't afford right now, it only costs us our time. The next time you're on the Internet, sign up for the UCAN database. You never know how you can be useful.
As an alumna, though, I hope I will not be a snob who is only nice to people from my university. Graduating from college, especially from this university, is a wonderful privilege and an achievement, but it is not an entitlement. There are too many elitists in this world who decide to treat people with less education like dirt, and we don't need to join them.
Four summers ago, I was a file clerk for two attorneys. One had been a paralegal for 15 years before law school, and when we were in the courthouse filing papers she advised me always to be nice to the county clerks because they knew many things I didn't.
As a paralegal, she had seen too many young attorneys be rude to the clerks, and their work got done much slower than for the people who had some humility. I hope that instead of being that arrogant lawyer, we will remember that the presence of a diploma does not mean we know all, and the lack of one does not make a person useless.
Having expressed all of these hopes, however, I realize not everyone, including me, will be able to live up to all of these things, or the individual goals we have set for ourselves, all the time. College students are known for idealism, and maybe that's why we don't react well to failure in ourselves or others.
Disappointment makes some people cynical, and in others it leads to wisdom and a renewed effort. If we are going to become the people we want to be, we will need to join the second group. And so, more than anything, I wish for us to be able to reach for the stars while remembering that we don't have to get there before age 30 or be underachieving failures.
Goodbye for now, everybody. These have been the best four years of my life, but I bet the best is yet to come. I'll see you at the reunion. Wahoowa!
(Elizabeth Managan was a 2000-2002 opinion columnist.)
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