I wouldn’t call myself the adventurous type. I can definitely be impulsive and I am certainly passionate, but I don’t always act on my instincts. Whenever I think about college, I think of it as a time to build ourselves outside of our comfort zones. I think of being bold and being active. Freshman year for me was a refreshing transition: I finally felt the air in my lungs again. I had my moments where I really loved high school, but I struggled with a lot of anxiety as well. Thinking about it now, and knowing how much I’ve grown, I am proud of myself. I am proud of myself for not staying passive, but rather fighting it and truly defining what it means to live my life.
Even though I’m not a huge poetry junkie, I really have an appreciation for it. In one of his most famous works, Dylan Thomas teaches us a lesson about whether we should accept death, or fight its inevitable arrival. The poem ends:
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
As springtime approaches, the sun decides to hang out with us for a bit longer into the night. Let this serve as a symbol that we should continue to stay active, to discover the depths of the world each day, without hesitation or anxieties. We must understand that sometimes it is worth it to let our hands get a little dirty if it means building something magical. Without trying to be Wiz Khalifa, I have always found magic in the saying “young, wild, and free” and especially the wild part. When we get so bound to the constraints of society we forget that we are wild creatures. We are civilized humans, yes. But we are wild. We can roam where we wish, we can do what we would like. If we want to go barefoot in the streets, we can. If we want to eat uncooked pasta, we can. We are young, we are wild, and we are free. Take advantage of that!
It is so important to keep this in mind, especially to all of my fellow college students. There are a lot of ways to feel constrained and a lot of ways to feel small, but we should not have to feel this way, especially during this chapter of freedom in our lives. I encourage all of you to rage, rage against the dying of the light: to not be a sideline fan, to not be passive, but rather, an active player in the game.
