It’s that time of year again. Each April, seniors across campus are asked to reflect on their time at the Capstone. Each April, the opinion pages of the CW are filled with nostalgia (and narcissism). I always loved reading them and was honored to write mine. So here goes.
As I’m sure was the case with many of you, when I was graduating from high school I had seemingly hundreds of people ask me about my college plans. If you are like me, nearly all of the people who asked about your plans did so because they wanted to impart a little wisdom to you. Of all of the unsolicited advice I received at the time, the absolute worst to me personally was something I’m sure all of you heard at least a dozen times: “Make sure to find your passion, and make sure to do something you love.”
After four years at the Capstone, I offer this “wisdom” of my own to all of you: Don’t waste your college experience finding something you love; instead, spend it finding something you hate.
I am a native Alabamian. I have always planned to live and die in Alabama, because I loved Alabama. If you had asked me five years ago, before I came to the University, I would have told you everything that I loved about it: the beautiful rivers, the magnificence of the Muscle Shoals Sound, the renown of the Huntsville Space and Rocket Center and the prestige of The University of Alabama at Birmingham Medical School. I could have talked to you for hours about how wonderful it is to live in the state of Alabama. Before college I loved Alabama, but that was only because I wasn’t looking at the whole picture.
During my freshman year, I spent time in Perry County, Alabama. Sophomore through senior year, I spent time traveling throughout Alabama as a Student Fellow of the Blackburn Institute. Throughout these experiences, I saw parts of Alabama that I never knew existed. I heard stories about voter fraud in the Black Belt. I drove by millions of tons of toxic coal ash. I learned about our archaic state constitution – the longest of any government in the world. I saw firsthand the effects of generational poverty, learned about our dangerously overcrowded prison system and realized the problems facing rural Alabamians and their lack of access to health care.
Most surprisingly, I also learned that it is demonstrably possible to win 62 out of 67 counties in an Alabama gubernatorial election and still not win the election as a whole. Politics aside, this fact says a lot about Alabama’s population distribution and the inequitable access to political representation for rural Alabamians. Suffice it to say I that loved Alabama – past tense – and now I have found several really big things that I hate. This changed my life, learning that I could both love Alabama for its uniqueness and hate Alabama for its shortcomings.
Here’s the point: I loved Alabama because I never really knew Alabama. My vision was very selective, and I didn’t see a whole lot. I was ignorant. But here is the troubling question: What would I have done two weeks from now when I graduate had I gone through my time at the Capstone and never seen these things that I now hate? Here’s the answer: lived and died an ignorant Alabamian. I found things that I hate while I was a student here, and now I know what to do when I graduate: roll up my sleeves and get to work. I will live and die an Alabamian, and I do love Alabama, but I have now realized what I need to do to while I’m living here: make life better.
My final piece of advice for all of you is pretty simple: Sure, find your passion and all that sappy stuff about following your dreams and whatnot, but find something you hate in the meantime. Find something that keeps you up at night and find something that makes you burn with indignation. Find something that you can’t stand in this world, something that you think must be changed and change it.
Do not be selective in choosing what you see and do not assume that you know the answers to the complex problems. Don’t be afraid to sit down and talk with people that vehemently disagree with you (and vice versa). Explore the complex issues, find something that you hate, and spend your energy trying to right the wrong that you have discovered. Do not spend your life doing what you love, spend your life making life better.
Joshua White is the outgoing student chair of the Blackburn Institute.
