Acorn

Issue date: 3/28/08 Section: Opinions

Media Credit: Merion Read

Let's just put this out on the table: I'm old.

To put things into perspective, let's look at the Class of 2011. I've been involved in some way or another at Drew University for basically their entire high school careers. I sat at the Alliance table-still in the closet and pretending to be straight, no less-on Spring Saturday 2004 and greeted the prospective students in the Class of 2008.

To any outsiders at Drew University, a near 23-year-old harping on her "old age" might seem mildly amusing. For a Drew student leader though, I've had a pretty long run. And in that long run, I've seen and observed a lot of things when it comes to student organizing on our campus.

More importantly though, I've seen a lot of people during my time. The generation of student leaders that I was a part of has since graduated. Names and faces that everyone once knew around campus fade into history.

As I prepare for my own graduation, I recognize that my own efforts as a student leader will quickly be forgotten. Soon, no one will know who I was or what I worked for, cared about or even did while at Drew.

Do I find this sad or depressing? Actually, I find it very beautiful.

Perhaps one my favorite initiatives I ever organized at Drew was the History of Activism at Drew lecture. I can not tell you how mind-boggling it was looking through the old Acorn archives and seeing face after face, name after name that I had never even heard of. Yet, those students made the campus what it was at the time.

We as a society are so incredibly obsessed with the notion of permanence. We want to see what it is we leave behind and a satisfactory conclusion of everything we worked on. We're conditioned to be driven insane by the thought the things move along without us.

If, when I began college, someone had told me that all my efforts would eventually be forgotten, I would still do everything I had done. People often say that campus activism does nothing. I beg to differ. The passions and knowledge that I have gained from fellow students, past and present, have shaped me into the individual I am today. And to me, that individual is a much better person than the person I was at the start of college. The journey was well worth it.

Activism has no room for ego. Your reward isn't necessarily getting to see the fruits of your labor or leaving behind a legacy. It's knowing that when you leave some place, you leave knowing that you did what needed to be done. It was what it was and it will be what it will be for the next generation.

Personally, I find that beautiful. And no, that's not just my old age getting to me.

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