College's best lessons aren't found in the classroom by Erick R. Schmidt
LEARNING FROM LIFE'S TEXTBOOK
My college career was nearly over before it began.
During freshman orientation in 2003, I went on a walk around campus with two of my closest friends from high school. The first thing we wanted to see was Memorial Stadium, and the best view of that campus landmark comes from the Campanile. Coming from a southwestern Kansas town that has no hills whatsoever, we admired the view from the top of The Hill.
As I looked down on what has become one of my favorite views, I started to walk through the base of the clock tower. Just before I passed through the walkway, one of my friends stopped me. He had heard of a tradition that warned against entering one side and exiting the other before graduation.
As I learned later, legend has it that passing completely through the tower makes
JUST BEFORE I PASSED THROUGH THE WALKWAY [OF THE CAMPANILE], ONE OF MY FRIENDS STOPPED ME. HE HAD HEARD SOME TRADITION THAT WARNED AGAINST ENTERING ONE SIDE AND EXITING THE OTHER BEFORE GRADUATION.
Stopped at the last possible moment, I felt humbled. I felt lucky that my friend had kept me from such a disastrous move, but I also felt overwhelmed by my tiny presence in such a large, new world. I was in college and, for the first time in my life, I didn't even know the basics of existence in my new surroundings.
graduating from the University an impossibility.
Three years later, the climate has changed. I've taken more than 30 classes since then, and I've learned the things you're supposed to learn in class. I know now that journalists are gatekeepers to information. I
I've also spent much of the past three years working on the school newspaper at various positions, and I've learned things you're supposed to learn when training for a career. I know what makes for a good headline, how to properly label a photo and that deadlines are the enemy.
know that Nietzsche's writings were the basis for Superman, and I know enough French to buy bread in Paris.
More important than those things, I've learned lessons outside of class and away from the newsroom that I couldn't have learned anywhere else. I can to tap a keg and use Enroll & Pay
without becoming completely homicidal. I know how to end up in the front row of a game at Allen Fieldhouse and where to sleep on campus. Those lessons started three years ago at the top of The Hill, and they haven't stopped since.
When my dorm buddy Lindy lost his battle with a lifelong illness that I never even knew he had, I learned to appreciate the opportunities I was given on a daily basis — and to do it with a smile on my face. When I went home to live with my parents for a summer, I learned that my family is always rooting for me, even when school and work keep me away from them. And when one of my best friends, the friend who kept me from making the Campanile mistake, lost his father to cancer a few months ago, I learned a thousand things. I learned what it was to be a friend and what it
was to be courageous.I saw real strength and honest character, and I learned to be humble all over again.
No matter how I look at it, I can't help but think that everything I've learned in the past three years can be traced back to that one day overlooking Memorial Stadium.
What I don't know is when I went from being that freshman-to-be who couldn't find his first class to a senior offering enrollment advice to incoming freshmen. What I do know is that I'm grateful for everything that has happened to me, and I still believe in campus legends. One of my personal favorites is the tradition of leaving the campus in better condition than you found it. I know Mount Oread has improved who I am; I'm just hoping that at the end of my time here, it will be able to say the same about me.
08. 24.2006 JAYPLAY <15