 | Powerful Mpat
Mpatanishi Tayari |
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I remember moving into Alice Lloyd dormitory for the first time three years ago. As a first-year student, the University campus was new to me and I knew few people coming in. Although beginning a new and independent life from my family was exciting, it was scary at the same time. It took our entourage nearly 45 minutes to get from Stockwell Hall to Lloyd and that particular trip, alone, made the University seem even larger and more imposing than ever.
The rain that day bore a gloomy disposition to "move-in day." A day that will always be remembered as the first day of my crazy life.
As a senior, today, I look back over subsequent years at the University and find myself choking back tears. Everyone always says that college years are the best of your life, and it seems as if I spent most of my time worrying whether or not I was making the best of my time here.
A few days ago I was compelled to reread an essay that was introduced to me by one of my colleagues. It was a self-told tale about a man who, for reasons unknown to him, found his way back to his alma matter after several years of dire avoidance. The writer remembered his first day at college as being traumatic, and subsequent years as being "punctuated by adversity." After graduation, Dennis Ernst didn't care if he ever returned.
Ernst was actually driving to another destination when he found himself back on campus. "Why am I here?" he asked himself. As the befuddled alum looked around his old stomping grounds 10 years later, he began to recognize a beauty that was never before noticed amidst running to classes and dodging people on the way to the library.
And then he knew. He noticed "The Rock" sitting directly in front of him.
"The Rock" was a four-foot-tall boulder similar to the one we have here at the University. At the college Ernst attended, however, it was described as "a campus symbol of pranks and high jinks"; it was where late-night pranksters would paint obscenities or political statements, tar and feather, or even tee-pee the object.
But years later, Dennis Ernst was taunted by an object that reminded him of all that he had missed during his college years. It is because of Ernst's regretful memories that I encourage first-year students - and others - to make it a priority to get the most out of your college experience.
It is during these four or five years (or more) that you not only grow through academic success, but also through community involvement and building lifelong friendships.
If one of your friends is in theater, don't turn down opportunities to go to his or her performances. As Dennis Ernst looked around his alma mater, he noticed the athletic field where football and intramural games occurred without him. Instead, he went home on weekends. In the spring his fraternity had annual picnics, but he always found something to study instead.
Similarly, don't let these Michigan years pass without singing "Hail To The Victors" at least once during basketball season. Or make time to visit Michigan Union parties when Black Greeks are "steppin." Years later, Dennis regrets knowing "a lot of equations, but not many students." Or memorizing "formulas, but forgetting to have fun." Dennis Ernst also never painted his rock.
Alternately, there are several people who have painted their own rocks in their lifetime. Specifically, I remember and respect my recently deceased and dearly loved grandmother for all she had accomplished through her 90 years of life. Mama Thelma Garrett helped me realize the importance and virtues of selfless acts of involvement and commitment. I think people like my grandmother, who have lived full and colorful lives, are the soundest of us all.
Dennis Ernst went back to his alma mater to encompass this "soundness" and "add color to a ... gray fragment of (his) life." And so, according to Ernst, it took 10 years for him to realize that he had not taken the several opportunities to grow outside the classroom while he was in college.
Consequently, "The Rock" got a fresh coat of paint from an alum late that night.
As we leave behind the third week of classes, and students are inundated with adjustment issues, I hope that students remember the multifaceted aspects of University life that are shown every day through such things as Festifall (which will take place tomorrow), football games, frat parties and others. In essence, don't wait for the rock to hit you.
- Mpatanishi Tayari is an LSA senior. She can be reached over e-mail at mtayari@umich.edu.