(December 22, 2005)
So I have another thought to get off my mind. Maybe it’s this beautiful weather I’m enjoying in California that's making me think, or something along those lines.
I began reading a biography on Abraham Lincoln back in June, and couldn’t touch it during this past semester due to the demands of school. On Monday I was reading a few pages dedicated to explaining how he epitomized the American notion that a person can change their surroundings. He was born with literally nothing, while farming would take breaks to sit under a nearby tree and study law, and made himself the one of the eminent lawyers in the western US. All of that he did on his own. No schooling, to real mentors early in his adult life- he developed the character over time which made him what he still is today.
So think back to how in high school all of your friends tell you in your yearbooks to “Not Change…. Never!” “Stay the way you are, forever.” Yadda yadda yadda.
At my high school graduation as we’re walking down the football field, the announcer read some pre-written statements by some of those graduating. The majority were by kids who hadn’t planned much after high school, basically saying on the announcement their schooling was over. “Mom and Dad, I made it! I’m done! I’m through! I’m finished with school!”
Did you ever see that Home Improvement episode in the early days (you know, before that JTT kid hit puberty?) when Tim’s college friend comes to visit and hasn’t changed in the 10 years since college? Towards the end of the episode, Tim realized they had nothing in common, because Tim loved the present, and the other guy “glorified in the past while the future dried up.”
I had the chance to go to Santiago Chile as a missionary. For those of you who aren’t LDS, I wish you could in some way grasp what that experience means and is. When I came back, there was so much I had learned about myself during that time that I couldn't return to who I was previously, even if I tried.
Basically, I’m trying to explain how glad I am for the principle of change. I’m sure glad I’ve been able to, if even in the smallest way. If we’re the same person at the end of the year that we were at the beginning of the year- if we haven’t developed better attributes, are not kinder, have not left behind some vice or addiction we know are destructive to us, are we really moving in life at all? I reflect on the past decade occasionally, when I come home and look at my photo albums from then. I had a lot of fun, yet I’m glad I’m not the same person I was back then. I think he was a good guy, yet there were some traits he had which, looking back, I’m glad he’s gotten rid of.
People go to school for years to get a Bachelor’s Degree or a doctorate, but their character and personality very often doesn’t change. We pursue education for a degree, and facts and information which just lay dormant, without our incorporating them into our life. If you are not a better person after studying and going to school- more refined, more trustworthy, higher integrity, etc.- what was the point of wasting so much time? U.S. News and World Report, in 1980, had an article declaring that "Universities are turning out highly skilled barbarians." I wonder how much truer that is now, 25 years later.
I love a quote that says “I believe that how one lives his life is the ultimate test of an education.” I guess that’s all I wanted to say.
Again, if you stayed through all of this, I appreciate your company.
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