Letter to the editor: saying goodbye to friends and students
Mally Ulm
Issue date: 11/18/09 Section: Letters to the editor
I've lived inside the walls of SBU for nearly four years. Now, with T-minus 33 days and counting till my departure, you can imagine the thoughts of nostalgia rolling around in my brain.
To whoever picks this up and is reading the black ink, I want to offer you something.
SBU has taught me both what religion is, and definitely what religion is not. That sometimes, you do not grab onto the "religion" you claim, but you become spiritual enough to know there's something bigger inside you.
Sometime life is brutal, but we have to embrace it, work with it and persevere.
Fellow students and comrades, it is ok to not have all the answers. We never will. It is ok. All of us fall in more ways then one, but the key is admitted that we fell even though sometimes it is down right brutal.
Whether it's a first time friend who you feel an urge to pull your skeleton straight out, or the familiar pink and white TOMs of an acquaintance who walks up to offer hope, your pile will begin to shatter but it'll take time. And that is ok.
Find one person on this campus that you truly fall in love with. Each year find at least one freshman to pull under your wing and "show them the ropes". Be willing to experience everything new you can, even if you might get in trouble. I am not advocating that you break every rule, I'm saying its ok to break curfew at least once, stay up late, go out for an adventure.
Understand that you are not the only person going through the rough moment, and even if you pull out your skeleton to a group of people who shun you afterwards, it was still right.
Academics are the main reason you are here, but it is ok to procrastinate a bit if it means you get one more night of laughing or sobbing in. Cherish the moments you have in your dorm, you will probably never be around that many peers at once.
If this doesn't mean anything to you, then it doesn't matter. If it some how reaches inside you and made you think, even if that is only one person, then I've at least accomplished my goal.
SBU, alumni, current students, future students, faculty and staff, and the city of Bolivar, be raw with your lives. Live naked, and find something you can truly invest in. After your graduation, it won't matter what rule you broke, how much time you spent in the library (or didn't spend in the library), how much trouble you got in, what decision you had to make, the paper you wrote last minute, or the test you worked so hard on.
What will matter is what you pack into your bags along with your skeleton and walked away with. The people, events, laughs, moments, places, memories, cries, lessons, and peace; that is what college is about.
As a senior, I wish everyone the best of luck and thank SBU for teaching me through the roughest moment of life. Be vulnerable and raw - this is your life.
To whoever picks this up and is reading the black ink, I want to offer you something.
SBU has taught me both what religion is, and definitely what religion is not. That sometimes, you do not grab onto the "religion" you claim, but you become spiritual enough to know there's something bigger inside you.
Sometime life is brutal, but we have to embrace it, work with it and persevere.
Fellow students and comrades, it is ok to not have all the answers. We never will. It is ok. All of us fall in more ways then one, but the key is admitted that we fell even though sometimes it is down right brutal.
Whether it's a first time friend who you feel an urge to pull your skeleton straight out, or the familiar pink and white TOMs of an acquaintance who walks up to offer hope, your pile will begin to shatter but it'll take time. And that is ok.
Find one person on this campus that you truly fall in love with. Each year find at least one freshman to pull under your wing and "show them the ropes". Be willing to experience everything new you can, even if you might get in trouble. I am not advocating that you break every rule, I'm saying its ok to break curfew at least once, stay up late, go out for an adventure.
Understand that you are not the only person going through the rough moment, and even if you pull out your skeleton to a group of people who shun you afterwards, it was still right.
Academics are the main reason you are here, but it is ok to procrastinate a bit if it means you get one more night of laughing or sobbing in. Cherish the moments you have in your dorm, you will probably never be around that many peers at once.
If this doesn't mean anything to you, then it doesn't matter. If it some how reaches inside you and made you think, even if that is only one person, then I've at least accomplished my goal.
SBU, alumni, current students, future students, faculty and staff, and the city of Bolivar, be raw with your lives. Live naked, and find something you can truly invest in. After your graduation, it won't matter what rule you broke, how much time you spent in the library (or didn't spend in the library), how much trouble you got in, what decision you had to make, the paper you wrote last minute, or the test you worked so hard on.
What will matter is what you pack into your bags along with your skeleton and walked away with. The people, events, laughs, moments, places, memories, cries, lessons, and peace; that is what college is about.
As a senior, I wish everyone the best of luck and thank SBU for teaching me through the roughest moment of life. Be vulnerable and raw - this is your life.
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