A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a displaced Midwesterner on a crazy acid trip turned to her dog-in-hand and said, “Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
Minus the Midwestern heritage and acid trip (or not), many of you now probably feel like Dorothy in Oz, balking at the mystery and excitement of all that surrounds you. Only, instead of Toto, you’ll probably turn to your roommate for companionship in this new enchanted land: unless, of course, you’d consider a cute dog like Toto more of a roommate than your actual roommate — totally legit.
Last week we published a “New Student’s Edition” of the paper, and in the editorial we talked anger and restraint with our new Gators. Feeling angry is good; to feel angry is to feel the energy and passion necessary to tackle the issues and injustices of our time. Unfortunately, people often let their anger dominate their opinions without any desire to keep their opinions in check.
Restraint is necessary. To practice restraint is to recognize our own ignorance and act on growing our awareness and deepening the accuracy of our understanding. In other words, to practice restraint is to make sure you actually know what you’re talking about: This way, your anger has value and you’re not just being a dick.
Read, feel angry, question yourself, question the world, question some more, read some more: This is the balance we should all be striving for, what we coin, “The Alligator’s five-step plan to mastery and dominance over the whole world… and politics at Thanksgiving dinner.” We’re filing a patent over that idea.
This “anger-restraint” talk is the sort of discussion we had with all the new students last week. Now, in honor of all those returning to The Swamp this semester, let’s tackle a separate issue: complacency.
Never allow yourself to stay too comfortable. Obviously comfort should be sought and cherished. Many of you this semester (and throughout life) should desire to feel comfort by participating in something that brings you happiness or fulfillment or finding bits of familiarity along your path — we encourage this.
However, there is such a thing as resting on your laurels and not allowing yourself to adapt to new environments, take on challenges and expand the limits of who you are.
It’s normal to fear the unknown or feel unwilling to change: In fact, it’s so normal that you see this sort of complacency (mostly the unwillingness to change) throughout our political system.
As Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks stated on the election, “It’s not an accident that under this crooked, corrupt system we have the two most unpopular candidates in American history.” The proof is in the pudding: The electoral game we watched over this long, cruel summer is all of the evidence anyone needs that complacency only brushes our problems further under the rug.
Likewise, you mustn’t allow yourself to feel complacent if you think there’s room for improvement. (Pro tip: Everyone is struggling; there’s always room for improvement.) Take some time, meditate and set clear, achievable goals for how you can treat yourself and those around you better and elevate the quality of your experience during your years here on campus.
Otherwise, you’ll look back at this time and think, “Oh, I should have tried that,” or, “Man, if only I had been brave enough to be honest with myself and step up.” Or maybe you’re just Mr. Perfect McPerfect-Pants and think you’ve got everything figured out — in which case, just go home. Nobody wants you here.
