In a week's time, this campus, this oasis of knowledge and aesthetic splendor, is going to be slammed-packed beyond your imagination. There are going to be bicyclists whizzing through herds of people, preachers damning the masses to hell and anything else you could possibly imagine, including tons and tons of dancing. It's going to be like Black Friday had a drunken hook-up with a Harry Potter premiere - on crack.
So here lies the million-dollar question: Do you have any idea what in God's name you have signed up for?
If you're one of those who say, "Psh, child please. I got this on lock. I'm going to make this university say my name," then you, for the lack of a better word, are about to get clowned HARD.
If your answer falls within the range of "nope/not a clue/not yet/no soup for you!" don't slam the panic button. You're not supposed to get it; it's designed that way. Relax. You're actually one step ahead of the schmohawks listed above.
In this day and age, we're expected to know everything - or else. We're supposed to know how to look, how to feel, how to please the opposite sex, how to work the remote and everything else short of curing cancer.
Guess what? It's OK to shrug your shoulders and say, "I don't know."
Make no mistake, each and every one of you is capable of doing fantastic things that can make this university even better. If you didn't have that capability, you wouldn't be here.
But while all of you are valued members of the Gator Nation and all of you have talents to offer, you also share another trait : You're human.
These next few months may be some of the best times of your life. They also may be some of the most awkward, trying, frustrating and even painful experiences you will face. You're going to get pushed and not just in the classroom. Things that you have been brought up to believe your whole life are going to get shaken. There will be thousands of hands trying to pull in you in completely different directions. Something is eventually bound to break.
These deconstructions, not the late-night drunken escapades or the Saturday afternoons in fall, will make or break your college experience.
And they don't stop once you get your first semester grades. In fact, they show up more frequently with every passing year until you walk across that graduation stage.
There are two ways you can answer these challenges. The first, and the easiest, is to stand aside. By doing this, you will avoid the brunt of the collisions and may even come through unscathed. You can even still make it through, get respectable marks in your coursework and enjoy some of the things this university has to offer if you choose that path.
But no matter how much you learn from your professors or your textbooks in your short stay here, you will still fail to discover your true potential. You may get a degree, but you will be cheated out of a true education.
That is why we are asking you, the class of 2015, to take the second option. Stand your ground where so many have chosen to stand aside. Stand tall where your predecessors have chosen to walk away. Most importantly, stand for something.
It's your move.
