The Observer, December 8, 2006
Volume XXXIX, Issue 13
One Foot Out the Door: More to life than numbers and letters
The grind is on: How many finals next week? How many lectures to review? How many slides to memorize? How many problem sets to rehearse? How many papers to write (let alone revise)?
Not too long after a new list develops: Conspiracy theories about the University. Less than polite reflections about the uselessness of final exams. Agreements about new revelations that your professors were assigning impossible tasks. Consistent gasping variants of the same question – Do I really need to learn this?"
Yes – these are the signs that you have approached the brink of final exams.
Once in, it is quite attractive to find any distraction: groceries, vacuuming, or (dare I say it) Facebook.
My most recent distraction involved a conversation with a friend hardly stressed about this time of year, seemingly taking it stride. Pressing her about such an attitude, she confessed, "Well I'm okay with being 'okay' or 'alright'… I'm not trying to be super rich or super successful, to have the most attractive husband, to live in the best place…I'm just looking for versions of those things that make me happy and don't consume me."
I wasn't sure how to respond to that so I tried connecting it to something I had read about acclaimed author Jack Higgins. He took his experience along the East German border in the 1950s along with a London University degree to publish more than 60 novels.
After having yet another of his writings reach the bestseller list he was asked in an interview, "What one thing do you now know that you wish you knew as kid?" Without even pausing, he told the reporter, "That when you get to the top, there is nothing there."
Returning to my friend's statement about final exams, I realized it was not a compromise of her standard, but rather an understanding of Higgin's reflection. Getting to the top – of a class, grades, a best seller list – is only meaningful if you are content with the person you are when you get there. The privileged position on top alone is not enough to make the hours of grinding worthwhile.
Next week it will be easy to see ourselves as individuals trained in a particular discipline sitting for an exam. More difficult, however, will be to see ourselves as individuals that can also engage society in other meaningful ways not measured in a single letter grade or percentiles. Finding a keen satisfaction in that balancing act is the challenge Higgins realized he missed and what my friend was sure not to.
Ibrahim is a senior Medical Anthropology major who has just returned from a year abroad in London.
