On the joys that
lie ahead
Harry Scherer
Class of 2022
(8/2019) As my classmates and I
transition into our second year of college, there seems to
be a common sentiment of expectation for the unknown, but
comfort in the knowledge and experience of the past. This
upcoming year will be markedly different for me in some
ways but pleasantly similar in other ways.
Firstly, I will be a resident
assistant on the same floor on which I was a resident
during freshman year. For the sake of myself and, most
importantly, the residents for whom I will be responsible,
this added obligation and privilege will consume physical
and mental energy. I have little idea what to expect for
this position, but I anticipate the joys, sorrows,
successes and difficulties which accompany it.
By virtue of the position, I will
be required to think of persons, many persons, other than
myself. This requirement is, of course, incumbent upon all
of us because of our humanity, but is particularly
necessary for me with these men. The situation makes me
think of my aunt, a nurses’ aide, remarking about a
colleague: "she’s a solid aide. And that’s about the best
thing you can say about the people who do that job." My
hope is that the residents think of me at the end of the
academic year as a "solid RA", despite my vices and
weaknesses.
The year will also be the same in
many ways, as well. I will still be going to classes,
eating lunch with friends and trying to live the way a
college student should. While seemingly innocuous, all of
these tasks require interior and exterior motivation, as
is the case with any other human action which has any
meaning to it. Otherwise, we would not get out of bed in
the morning. We have to face the dragon of the unknown
every day, without any guarantee that this encounter will
be successful. Thankfully, the dragon of resistance from
ourselves, others and nature make us stronger and more
capable of winning the battle for the next day. Outside of
this outlook, the banality of life seems to overcome too
many in our own generation in the forms of drug and
alcohol abuse, suicide ideation or even a consistent
apathy.
These perversions of life itself
remind me of my junior philosophy teacher in high school
often repeating the meaningful phrase: "Bad metaphysics
leads to bad ethics!" Without a proper understanding of
who we are, who God is and what our relationship with Him
is, we will not treat each other or ourselves with the
respect and dignity which we deserve by nature of our
humanity.
One of the best things about
college, especially in an isolated, rural environment, is
the ability and encouragement to talk about things like
this. I did not realize at the beginning of my freshman
year that I should carve out time to talk about these
topics with very knowledgeable people. As an incoming
freshman, I was so concerned with initiating social
relationships and filling up all the hours of the day with
activity that I did not give myself the chance to step
back and consider the bigger picture about who a college
student should really be and why I am at this college with
these people at this particular time. Now that I have had
some time during the summer to step back from many of
these social obligations and activities, I was reminded of
the necessity for time in solitude and silence. In
addition, I hope to take greater advantage of the office
hours of professors. Every professor that I have had so
far has been particularly generous and encouraging with
their office hours and it is a resource which I think I
neglected in my first year. Also, I would like to spend
more time at the grotto. That place of peace is, in my
eyes, one of the best attributes of our campus.
After all of these practical
resolutions, I still know almost nothing about what will
be different about this upcoming school year. Recently,
whenever I tell myself that I have ‘almost no idea what to
expect’ about a certain experience or encounter, the
result is almost always positive. Granted, these reminders
are usually said in moments of anticipation and not those
of hesitation, but my sentiments for the upcoming year are
certainly ones of anticipation. But, what has become more
frequent in my routine of mental preparation for these
sorts of things is the expectation of suffering and a
vague idea of how to deal with it. This seems to be
understood even on a natural and secular level. For
example, clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson said, "it
is not an accident that the axiomatic Western individual
is someone who was unfairly nailed to a cross and
tortured." While the limitation of Christ to that of
axiomatic individual of the West might be myopic in
theological scope, the idea of the universality of
suffering is still very present for secular society. We
should be encouraged to recognize that suffering is an
unavoidable part of life and is worth considering even
while we are not experiencing it. This might seem
unnaturally cynical for a college student, let alone a
sophomore college student, let along a sophomore college
student writing about the joys and hopes of the future. I
beg the forgiveness of the reader, but I want to think
like this at this point of my life so that I might be a
blind optimist at the end of my life.
To that end, a final hope for this
upcoming year is a greater devotion to the ancient prayer
of memento mori, remember your death. Our generation would
do well to have a greater eschatological urgency with
regard to how we direct our thoughts, words and deeds.
Memento mori is not a morbid foreboding of our ultimate
demise, but rather a hopeful anticipation of the joys that
lie ahead.
Read other articles by Harry Scherer