University is nothing if not a community. Strangely enough, many people see this world of opportunity as nothing more than a place to spend money while working towards a piece of paper. University may give you an accolade at the end of the day, but the importance of making connections while here is the real lesson.
We’ve all come to Wilfrid Laurier to achieve a higher level of understanding, but in what? Think about your major. How does the subject you’ve chosen to learn resonate with you? What is your goal in taking these courses?
When you look around, consider this. Many other people in the room are interested in the same things you are. They have similar goals. This means they are your community. They are likely to have similar values, similar thoughts, but perhaps very different conclusions.
The best thing you can do for your education while in university is to befriend these people who are following the same paths you are, and utilize their perspectives to deepen your own.
Maybe the people you see in your political science courses share your interest in investigating world problems and discussing solutions. Your fellow psychology students may share your passion for understanding motivation. Perhaps you take biology courses because you want to improve life on a cellular level. Whatever courses you’re in, there are people within those groups that share your values.
At university, there is more meaning than meets the eye. While you sit in classes preparing for the midterm, you’re also integrating yourself in ancient discussions about human life. How do we better ourselves? How do we cooperate? What is the best way to live?
Each course is a piece of the greater framework that attempts to understand human life. It is a narrative greater than our own daily lives, our own society. These are ideas transmitted from thinker to thinker, and we are fortunate enough to be attending university and participating in the discussion.
This is a time of opportunity. The four years during which we are here provide us more pathways than just a simple strategy for obtaining a job.
But to properly utilize these pathways, you have to have a goal, build a community that helps you achieve it and allow yourself to learn from your mistakes.
The importance of building community while at university fulfills more than an individual satisfaction. It helps connect the greater narrative of human understanding together.
Keep your eyes open to the relationships you build within the community of the classroom. Investigate the information that tickles your curiosity.
Never be afraid to be brave and play your way through university. We are here to explore, to take classes that expand our knowledge or introduce us to something entirely new.
Having a stable career in the future is a good goal, but it’s not the only one to work towards in university. These four years are a series of tests we can adapt to by setting goals and learning what methods do or do not help us obtain them.
Maybe you want to have a more vibrant social life so you’re looking for ways to meet similar individuals.
You might want to do better on this midterm than any other you’ve done, so you take a serious look at your habits and stop the ones that waste time.
Even if your goal is to wake up on time for that morning class, you can reflect on what needs to happen for that to be realized.
Regardless of our individual goals that diversify us and our interests, we’re all working towards the same, greater goal of finding truth.
Truth is found in the study methods that work best for you, the time you go to bed to feel most vibrant in the morning, classes that excited you the most, connections that brighten your life and habits that leave you feeling good at the end of the day.
Opportunity to find truth is everywhere in university, and building a community of others with similar goals can help you articulate, practice, refine and achieve your own goals.
The importance of building community while at university fulfills more than an individual satisfaction. It helps connect the greater narrative of human understanding together.
Investigate your curiosities. The people you see all around can help clarify your goals. Be brave today and say hello.