I am proud to say I am a member of the Class of 2007.
In less than two weeks we will be exiting the hallowed halls of Ball State University. We will be receiving our diplomas and walking out feeling both liberated and quite possibly scared to death.
It is the doubt that worries us and it is the thought of failure that makes it hard to sleep at night. Now, there are a select few who have it all figured out. They have already been given a job as soon as they graduate. My hat is off to them for having received such a blessing.
Still, there are some who have not been so lucky. We are still searching for our niche in the world. All of us have one thought in minds. We hope that if we use what we have learned in our classes, through our experiences and apply it to any future endeavor, we will leave a lasting impression on the world around us.
This is a wonderful goal but, of course, it will take plenty of work to make it come true. The real world, many have taken great pleasure in telling me, is not easy. They also go on to say that if you found college difficult to endure then you haven't seen anything until you step foot off campus for the first time and experience the real world for yourself.
Of course, this is all hearsay and conjecture on my part, for like you I have yet to make this daring leap into the unknown. Fortunately, though, this is not Star Trek. We are not going "where no man has gone before" but instead we are going where many men and women have gone before. The trouble is, while many make it, some sadly fall by the wayside.
The question we must ponder is: Why?
The answer lies in the notion that even though people know what they want in life, they either don't have the will to follow through or they allow outside forces to intervene. Sometimes all it takes is a negative word from someone and they are degraded to a lower location on the totem pole of success.
Make no mistake, trials will come, but it's what people do with them that make a difference. Nobody is ever promised easy access to success. After all, college wasn't easy, and all of us have experienced a hardship along the way to receiving our diploma. In fact, some of us may be facing them even now. Trials are a fact of life and there's nothing that we can do but make the best of things and cling to whatever it is that'll get us through the hardship.
As we leave the university for the last time, let us walk into the future with our head held high, believing in our hearts that even though the future may not be easy, the future is ours if we reach out and grab it. Don't sit back and watch it pass you by, but take it by the horns and ride it until you've experienced the best it has to offer. One more word of advice: No matter what happens in your life, no matter what you do, to your own self be true.
Write to Joshua atjsfaris@bsu.edu
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