Spring has arrived and with it, an inordinate amount of activities, events and other campus opportunities are blossoming. And as we creep out of the doldrums of a snowy Malibu winter, the crisp spring air screams, “Get involved, you sloven!”
That’s right. Spring is a time to rev up, to start your proverbial engines. The seasonal gradient lifts us out of our frosted stagnancy, offering signs of new beginning and fresh opportunity — a chance to be a part of something, to make a name for oneself. Certainly, we’ve all heard our peers crying out, “What can I be a part of? Where can I be something?”
Just look around — with all the opportunities to sign up for a club, to play an intramural sport, to be a Songfest champion or at least to order something from the Korean BBQ truck — we can’t just watch these golden prospects fly by us!
These are our chances to emerge, to write our name into eternity, to stand up, rip our clothes and say, “World, I am [insert name]. Remember me, forever!” It’s these transient experiences that define who we are. We can make our glorious mark on this place — forever emblazed in an effigy of honor.
Just look at me. In 2010, my legacy was forever immortalized in an ornate engraved placard as the Best Rookie Writer of the Year for the Pepperdine Graphic. That was it. That’s my high note — all I needed was one pristine plaque located in an inconspicuous spot in the CCB with my name on it. Now I can just sit back and rest on my laurels, basking in the comfort of the knowledge that I will never be forgotten — I am somebody (though only consistently read by my immediate kin, and not even all of them I’m pretty sure. Where you at, Hanny?).
I mean it’s not like this was an award from some relatively small university with an obscure religious tradition in a sleepy town with next to no inhabitants — because when a giant cross tower is posted up on the front lawn, it’s certainly not because we might be compensating for say, some … institutional insecurities — I mean this is Pepperdine freakin’ University for gosh sake, la creme de la creme!
So for those of you who I hear out there whining on and on about how you just want to do something truly meaningful with your time here, I say, “Yeah, hurry up. What have you been doing for the past few years?”
I tried to knock my identity-giver out as soon as possible to allow for maximal basking time. Look — let me let you in on a little secret … it doesn’t really matter what you do. Just be remembered. Just build a legacy. Just get your name etched in stone. Just do it.
Here’s the thing — if you don’t get involved, if you don’t make something of yourself, if you don’t find a way to let everyone know that you are somebody, then you’re a nobody. And do you know who likes a nobody? Do you know who wants to employ a nobody? Do you know who wants to get married and have three kids with a nobody? Nobody. Nobody likes a nobody.
Look, time’s a tickin’, and if you don’t find something from which you can derive your identity and sense of purpose before May of [insert expected graduation year], then you’re going to fall to the wayside of society and will forever be lost to the shadows of history.
Get me straight — all I mean to say is that if you get super involved, jam pack your calendar, and pray that you find that one thing (or 10) that defines your Pepperdine days, then you’ll find your true vocation and cultivate a healthy sense of identity. That’s how it works!
Nothing is as firmly grounded and momentous as our college experiences. Here’s a nice litmus test of campus involvement –– if you haven’t figured out who you are or what defines you, then you’re probably not involved enough and consequently, things aren’t looking too bright for your well … overall eudaimonic value. One take away that might help you evaluate where you stand in this big charade –– go up to a few randomly selected students and say, “Excuse me, have you ever heard of [insert your first and last name]?” If not, well … tick, tick, tick. A final word with my utmost sincerity –– put all your stock in these four years — they are truly the most important times we will ever have.
