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Here we are! Welcome, new students. Welcome, returning students. Welcome, staff and faculty. It is good to be together again. Today is a new beginning for all of us!
Three challenges. That is all I want to share with you today. The closer you listen, the shorter I will talk. When our daughter was little, I was trying to encourage her to eat Brussels sprouts. She wisely said, “But the longer I chew them, the worse they taste.” I know what happens the longer I talk, so let’s get to it.
Challenge No. 1: You each have power to succeed at Manchester College. When we think about ourselves, we think about how smart we are, how much we weigh, what talents we have (and don’t have). But most of us don’t think much about how much power we have. Every one of us in this auditorium has power, but sometimes we give it away.
Why would anyone give power away? It’s not as strange as it sounds.
- Sometimes it’s easier to complain about things rather than exerting our power. We blame others for things when, in fact, we’ve chosen NOT to use our own power. Example: Let’s say I don’t study much for a test because it’s the morning after Gray’s Anatomy or a good football game on television. I don’t do well on the test, so I gripe about how picky the questions were and how unclear the professor’s lectures are. How is that giving away power? I have the power to do well on that test if I attend class and study. I can improve my grade. But instead, I give away my power and blame the professor. That gives the professor my power. Why do it?
- We sometimes give power away because we’re scared. We freeze up in tense situations. We’re scared because we think others won’t like us if we say what we really think, so we freeze up and give them the power. We want to be liked and approved of more than we want to be true to our beliefs. We give away our power by not representing ourselves. We’re scared to be strong.
I sent an e-mail to returning students in July, asking them to share advice about how to succeed in College. The responses were fabulous – and many of them are printed in this program. The rest will be on the tables in Haist Commons. Mostly, I hope you notice the theme that winds through them all – take power over your time. Take control of your priorities. Take responsibility to meet your professors and learn to know them. No advice about ways to avoid doing your work or blaming things on the dean, but clear statements about ways to use your own power to learn and grow.
You have the power to do well in College. Remember, if you think you don’t have much power or if you “think you’re too small to have an impact on how things go, try going to bed with a mosquito.” 1
One specific way to use your power this fall is to register to vote and then to vote. There is information on our web site about how to do this. Wouldn’t it be impressive if 100 percent of the Manchester College students who are eligible to vote would vote?
You have power to succeed here. Use it
Challenge No. 2: Academic and personal success is about persistence as much as anything else. You all know the quotation by Thomas Edison that “genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.” Being smart is just a fraction of what it takes to graduate from Manchester College. Every single student here can succeed and graduate. Every single one.
If you did not have the intelligence to pass your classes, we would not have admitted you.
Students who do best here keep moving toward graduation every single day. Students who succeed are the ones who attend their classes every day, study every day, and keep moving toward the goal of graduating
This summer, we got to witness history when Dara Torres, at age 41, competed in her fifth Olympics swimming competition, with her first one when she as 17. She won medals in each of the earlier four Olympics. In competitive swimming, though, at age 41, she’s practically an antique. She even has a 2-year-old daughter. People describe her as a “fitness commando” and she is an outspoken “no-doper.” One person said her cross-training regimen includes “things that border on Cirque du Soleil.” Is her success due to being a gifted athlete? In part, of course. But qualifying for the Olympic swim team five times is more about persistence. It’s about getting up when you’d like to sleep in, eating the salad instead of the 3rd piece of pizza, finishing the chapter you need to read before going to the PERC to shoot hoops.
The race is not always to the swift and the brilliant, but to those who keep running ... and swimming ... and studying.
You have the power to persist. Do it.
Challenge No. 3: When you face a setback, get up and keep walking. This summer, students at Carnegie Mellon University lost a visionary teacher to cancer. Randy Pausch, the father of three young children, saw it as his mission to help his students dream. In his now-famous last lecture, he shared his deep gratitude to mentors who had helped him along the way – his professors, his fellow professors, a football coach, and his parents. He told of some of his life-long dreams – writing a World Book Encyclopedia entry, experiencing zero gravity, and creating Disney attractions. He fulfilled all these dreams. But he reflected that he learned even more from dreams that didn't come true, like being a professional football player. He also shared an inspiring list of lessons – about finding the good in other people, about seeing "brick walls" not as obstacles but as challenges, about taking chances, and living with a spirit of gratitude. "If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself," Pausch said. "The dreams will come to you."
At the end of the actual lecture, he told the group that he had given it in the light of his terminal cancer to give his three little children a road map for their lives. "I'm attempting to put myself in a bottle that will one day wash up on the beach for my children." He died in July, a day after I had worked on this part of today’s speech.
If you haven’t seen the video of the last lecture by Randy Pausch, please do. Watch it sometime this week on YouTube with friends. Maybe a wing of a hall would like to watch it together. It may change your life.
So, in a nutshell:
- You have power to do well here ... use it.
- You can persist if you choose to. Choose to.
- When things get tough, keep walking
And finally, here are the Top 10 reasons I love my job at Manchester College:
- Admission to football games is free
- The moveable tables in Haist Commons
- The bee hives on the roof of the Science Center – how cool is this?? What college has bee hives on top of a building??!
- Toilet Talk – the publication that gives new meaning to the phrase “multi-tasking”
- Professor Bowman’s collection of Noah’s ark cartoons
- Dean Sharfman’s spiffy bow ties on special occasions
- The way you all look like very muddy pigs on May Day after mud volleyball
- The A Cappella Choir singing Java Jive
- The stunning Ken vonRoenn sculpture in the Science Center
- The chime ringing each morning and evening
And the other No. 1: Students like you
Use your power well.
Persist.
When things get tough, keep walking.
Have a great year!
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1 Anita Roddick |
