Today marks the first day of classes for the Class of 2019. Now that I’m a year removed from the excitement of that first day, I would like to share my takeaways from freshman year in the hopes that you will cherish your first year here as much as I did.
1. Be more than an “excellent sheep.” I first encountered this term my freshman O-Week and, intrigued, tracked down its source: disillusioned ex-Yale professor William Deresiewicz’s scathing critique of elite higher education in the United States. In Excellent Sheep, Deresiewicz argues that many college students are “smart and talented and driven, yes, but also anxious, timid, and lost, with little intellectual curiosity and a stunted sense of purpose: trapped in a bubble of privilege, heading meekly in the same direction, great at what they’re doing but with no idea why they’re doing it.” Now, whenever I find myself doing something because everyone else is doing it or because it’s the prestigious thing to do, I ask myself, “Am I being an excellent sheep?”
2. Email is powerful. Before email, students had to track down professors in obscure corners of the university. Now, we can use email to ask a professor a question, schedule an appointment during office hours or propose a FLUNCH. If you want to talk Duke policy with administrators, you can find them on email as well. I know from experience that Dr. Moneta, Dean Baker and President Brodhead are responsive and eager to speak with undergraduates.
3. Learn a new skill. At no other time in your life do you have the chance to learn so much with so little risk. At Duke, you can pick up ballroom dancing, get comfortable behind a camera, start blogging through the first-year media team or learn to arrange music with an a cappella group.
4. Make time for wandering. It pays to leave space open in your schedule. This is for two reasons: First, at a place like Duke, incredible things are constantly happening, and second, it’s good to have some time to yourself when nothing is happening. Thanks to foreign policy speakers with the Program in American Grand Strategy (AGS), world-class artists through Duke Performances and senior distinction projects in the theater department, my Duke education is considerably richer. Still, on some days, you won’t want to be so busy; my favorite places to escape the hubbub of campus life are the bamboo grove in Duke Gardens, the Thomas Room in Lilly Library and the rooftop garden on top of Environment Hall.
5. Seek advice when you need it. Last fall, I received a blast email from Dr. Jules Odendahl-James, Duke’s humanities advisor. I replied and set up a meeting with her. We talked about my interests for over an hour, and she followed up with a three-page-long email connecting me to a Bass Connections project on genocide and an initiative called Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum. Duke also has specialized advising for other disciplines such as the sciences and global and civic engagement.
6. Set concrete goals. Last year, I started setting goals in different spheres — relationships, wellness, academics, extracurriculars, family — and tracked my progress on a poster mounted on my wall. Whether it’s learning to code, practicing intentionality with a developing friendship or shaving seconds off your 5K time, concrete goals motivate you to achieve measureable progress.
7. Read for pleasure. Whether it’s a little poetry before bed, the latest bestseller, that classic work of literature you’ve been meaning to read or a seminal nonfiction work in a field of interest, reading serves not only as a respite from your busy life at Duke but also as a way to expand the frontiers of your own knowledge.
8. “Live the questions now.” Before my freshman year, I read Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, finding inspiration in his words: “Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers . . . because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”
9. Call home. Your family support system can carry you through the challenges of your first semester away. Your parents have been in your shoes if not on a college campus then certainly in emerging adulthood. They love you and miss you and want to help you.
10. “Your playing small does not serve the world.” Marianne Williamson’s ethic holds true for life at Duke. Here, it’s surprisingly easy to coast, studying what you already know you’re good at, doing the same activities you did in high school, surrounding yourself only with people who are similar to you. Seek out difference, not comfort. Listen to perspectives that challenge your own. Emerge changed for the better.
Matthew King is a Trinity sophomore. His column runs on alternate Mondays.
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