What I've learned
So, I've recently come to the realization that my undergraduate experience can be distilled to about two or three points of actual useful learning. You know, the kinda stuff I might use in real life (read, after graduate school).
1. Substance is way more important than appearance. It doesn't matter what people call themselves, what they are is more important. I've decided that I'm going to try to stop caring how I look to other people and care more about what kind of person I am. It's probably way too big a personal improvement job for me to take on, but it's worth a try.
2. People are not things and should under no circumstances be treated as such. I think this is pretty self-explanatory, and also pretty obvious to anyone with any sort of Christian values. But it's really amazing how many times people forget it.
3. I really don't know all that much. Also, pretty obvious, and graduate school is only making it worse. Before I went to HC, I thought I had the whole Christian thing figured out. Yeah . . . right. When I graduated HC, I thought I had a pretty good understanding of chemistry. Grad school is doing a pretty good job of beating that ridiculous thought out of my head.
So that's what I know. What do you know?
1. Substance is way more important than appearance. It doesn't matter what people call themselves, what they are is more important. I've decided that I'm going to try to stop caring how I look to other people and care more about what kind of person I am. It's probably way too big a personal improvement job for me to take on, but it's worth a try.
2. People are not things and should under no circumstances be treated as such. I think this is pretty self-explanatory, and also pretty obvious to anyone with any sort of Christian values. But it's really amazing how many times people forget it.
3. I really don't know all that much. Also, pretty obvious, and graduate school is only making it worse. Before I went to HC, I thought I had the whole Christian thing figured out. Yeah . . . right. When I graduated HC, I thought I had a pretty good understanding of chemistry. Grad school is doing a pretty good job of beating that ridiculous thought out of my head.
So that's what I know. What do you know?
posted by Victoria at 8:19 PM
3 Comments:
Sure Victoria, ask the hard questions. Gosh.
But as far as what I know, beyond the reactionary "not much," I guess the biggest thing that I've been learning over the past eight years or so is how much I need other people. Community. Fellowship. Call it what you want, but I'm just not satisfied with being an island any longer. And so, I have learned to be increasingly dependent on other people.
Odd comments, perhaps, coming from a person who also advocates pursuing truth and justice without regard for how many people may back you up. But how do you seek these things without other people? Isn't truth always related to subjects? When we think about justice, doesn't this inherently involve questions about people, community, society?
This is, of course, frustrating. Obnoxious, in fact. Before I figured out that being in a community and contributing to it and doing what I could to make other people's lives better was sort of the point of my whole existence, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. (Hint: the answer is NOT "be a lawyer." I'm occasionally still somewhat upset about that. But it seems to be working out so far.) So this lesson has taken me on sort of a crazy path to where I am now. And although I have ideas about where it will take me in the future, who knows? But at least I'll have other people to figure it out with, which I'm still learning is a great comfort.
Well, all I know is that you guys are the sweetest Sweet Suite ever! I love you guys....abs
This is a lesson I consider myself to have learned only in the last year or so. In that time it's really amazing how much I've come to realize I depend on others. That's probably what makes this recent transplant so difficult. Just as learning to lean and be leaned on became a viable option, the people changed and I need to learn how to relate to them in a different manner.
I really do like my new nerdy chemistry peeps though. :-)
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