The Observer, April 27, 2007
Volume XXXIX, Issue 26
One Foot Out the Door: Strive to develop sense of self
About this time a year ago, The Observer featured a full-page interview with a now retired faculty member, F.J. Routman from the now defunct Department of Communication Sciences. He focused on community and how students might understand themselves in a larger narrative. It was not enough to be "a person in a society with a discipline." You also had to be "a person who can get at others in much more meaningful ways." And if done right, the university experience should train you to do that. In writing previous articles about broadening your college experience, I was hoping to extend that advice.
I wonder, once removed from CWRU, how long you might continue in a conversation with a new person without branding yourself with the degree you received. What other meaningful exchanges could you have before getting to the one that provides your income or your footing for more schooling?
Routman's advice was not only about explaining yourself to another person, but also in terms of "developing yourself as a full person that has a sense of your own being, your own work, your own talents and your own willingness to be accomplished." To do that effectively, you have to be challenged in a way that forces you to rethink what you're about.
One tremendously influential individual on this campus who really drives at that attitude has been anthropology professor T.S. Harvey. It is sad for CWRU that after this semester he will be elsewhere, but he has left his mark. With a bit of humor and a lot of intellect, Harvey confronts students about how it is they come to understand themselves the way they do. With help from T.S. Eliot he often reminded us, "In order to arrive at what you are not / You must go through the way in which you are not."
It is difficult to think that underclassman here will leave CWRU not hearing those two voices as vividly as I did. The diploma from CWRU will have your name and discipline printed on it. What it really signifies, however, is that you're a little bit closer to figuring out what you're about, what you're wiling to put effort toward, and what you resonate with. I hope you found someone in your ear to keep you encouraged and reflexive while you made the vulnerable journey. The end of this academic year is just another stop along the way, and hopefully the time at CWRU set meaningful precedent for life afterwards.
Ibrahim is a senior Medical Anthropology major who has just returned from a year abroad in London.
