It’s dead week again, and it’s time for everyone to buckle down and salvage their semesters. Yes, it’s the time when people do the math and realize they need a 137 on their jogging finals to get a B. It’s the time when bookstores begin buying back your once expensive books in exchange for about 1.5 meals at Jack in The Box. This week is when people get stressed and usually do nothing but study. The guys on campus don’t shave. The ladies on campus even walk around with goatees. Many people have lab finals, so they feel this week and next week will make or break them. I only can tell you that LSU students are lucky no matter what happens in the next two weeks.
I realize most people may not want to hear how lucky they are when they are dead tired and haven’t eaten since they ate their moms’ turkey fritters, turkey a la mode, turkeysicles, etc., last Friday after Thanksgiving. However, at some point in time at LSU, we all should realize that we have been given something special.
LSU offers students a chance to learn about many subjects in the classroom. We can learn how to speak Russian or we can learn about Buddhism. Students can learn something about pretty much anything you can think of within reason (and sometimes not even within reason). What’s important is we learn a little more about the world around us from some of those classes.
Outside of classes, LSU offers students even greater things. LSU is a community of vastly different people. Before most people go to LSU, they only know the people they grow up with. When you get to LSU, you get to know and respect people you previously may have stereotyped because you didn’t understand them. This is one of the greatest things LSU offers students.
I can recall two occasions at LSU when I had encounters with people who I previously might have stereotyped. One time I had to interview the president of the Atheists, Agnostics and Humanists organization at LSU for a class. Everyone basically chuckled when I randomly was assigned that particular person. I even expected the interview to be weird. However, I found that the president of that club was just like me. We had different beliefs, but other than that we were basically the same.
Then, a few weeks ago at nighttime in the Quad, I met a person who asked me if I needed prayer. I was caught off-guard when this stranger asked me this, but ultimately answered him by saying I did. He then surprised me even more by turning around with his friend and proceeding to pray out loud for me right there in the Quad.
I will always remember these people because even though they had extremely different beliefs, they had the most important thing in common — they were both good people who wished the best for others. LSU sometimes is a small model of how the rest of the world should be. It’s a place where people begin to understand and help each other out regardless of differences.
Besides the classes and the people, there also is a great sense of freedom students have at LSU. It’s a great feeling to walk through the Quad and see people relaxing as the sun sets. It’s a great feeling to know you can join them or do whatever you want to do. Not everyone is so fortunate to do what they want all the time.
So in what looks like my last dead week at LSU, I hope each of you can understand how lucky we are at this time. Your successes and failures in life will not be measured by what you do on your upcoming exams. Your success will be measured by the great things you do for others and how you affect the world around you. The only people who truly will fail at LSU are those who never take advantage of the great opportunity they have been given to enlighten others. Thanks for the great responses and for reading my column the last two semesters. I’ve loved it. Peace.