Hey Everyone!
Four years ago I sent an email to my admissions counselor at Clarke College (now University) in Dubuque, Iowa, informing him that after several weeks of thinking, praying, and leafing through my college acceptance letters and brochures, I had decided that I wanted to attend his school. A week later, he sent me a bright yellow T-shirt with “Clarke Crusaders” printed on the front and “Let Me Hear Your Crusader Roar!” and a lion printed on the back. Enclosed with the shirt was a hand-written note welcoming me to the Clarke community.
Four years later, I remembered that shirt and dug through the dresser in my dorm room to look for it. I pulled it out, unfolded it, and laid it out on my bed to examine it, and all those feelings that I felt when I received the shirt four years ago rushed into me: anticipation, nervousness, a little bit of fear, and the highest possible expectations for what the next four years would bring me.
I’m now getting ready to say good-bye to this place that I have called my home since fall 2009, and I have a lot of mixed feelings about that. I’m simultaneously thrilled and terrified, breathless by how quickly these four years have passed and eager to step into the real world, grateful for what I’ve learned and sad that I have to leave. The journey hasn’t been without its obstacles, without times that I was so frustrated with the way my life was unfolding that I wondered what I was doing with myself. But somehow I made it, and I’m definitely a better person because of it.
There’s been a lot of debate lately over whether or not a college degree is worth the time, stress, and money, given today’s high unemployment rate, which is even higher for students graduating with degrees in fields other than the hard sciences or business. I am graduating with a degree that all the “best and worst degrees” lists regard as worthless: religious studies. What makes me even more nervous is the fact that I’m unsure if theology is my path to fulfillment anymore. I’m planning on applying to graduate programs in nonfiction writing in the near future, but in the meantime, I have to worry about how I’m going to start paying off my student loans and wonder where my heart lies, if not theology.
It’s easy for me to get discouraged over the fact that my career plans have changed and that I’m more than $20,000 in debt.
Still, I am grateful for the four years I spent at little ol’ Clarke University. Although my future is no longer as certain as it was a year and a half ago, when I was still passionately interested in my major, I’m thankful for the opportunities I’ve been given in these four years. I’m not sure what kind of person I’d be today had I not made the decision to attend college. Was my college experience worth it? Overall, yes. Yes. Yes.
I could talk at length about all the things that made my time here meaningful, but since The Write Teacher(s) was born out of a love and appreciation for education, I’ll focus on the site’s namesake: my teachers.
I chose to attend a small, liberal arts college for a few different reasons, but a big deciding factor was the promise that I would get one-on-one attention from my professors. Clarke definitely came through on this promise. The professors here are some of the smartest, kindest, most helpful people I’ve ever met. They don’t like being addressed as “Miss” or “Doctor;” they prefer students address them by their first names. I love that. It shows the kind of relationship they wish to have with students. They are interested in students as individuals, they want their students to succeed, and they have their students’ best interests at heart.
I have heard some students complain about the workload that professor X assigns or the sky-high expectations that professor Y has for his/her writing assignments, as if these professors are hell-bent on ruining their students’ lives and making college miserable. Yes, the professors I had at Clarke expected a lot from me, but only because they knew that I was capable of meeting those expectations. They pushed me into sometimes uncomfortable and unfamiliar territory, but they also encouraged me and believed in me.
Aside from being pushed and stretched, I’ve come to appreciate all the chances I’ve had to work closely with my professors in things related and unrelated to academics. More than just professors, they’ve been mentors to me, offering me wisdom and advice when I needed it and guiding me in my own personal and academic pursuits. My senior capstone advisor encouraged me to be curious and to make connections between my interests and ideas. My writing professor of three years has been instrumental in helping me embrace my identity as a writer and improve my craft. An art history professor that I knew for all four years but didn’t have as a teacher until my senior year has taught me just as much about life in his classroom as he has during his office hours, lessons like kindness, open-mindedness, and appreciation for the arts. If I had the space, I would acknowledge all my professors individually. But I can say this about them collectively: my experience at Clarke would not have been nearly as special without them. They taught me more than I ever dreamed possible. And they encouraged me to be a life-long learner.
That shirt and note that I received four years ago has become representative of what I’ve experienced at Clarke since receiving it. It was a simple gesture of welcome, kindness, respect, and gratitude for my future contributions to the Clarke community. I found all those things and so much more at this school, but especially in the professors that challenged me, encouraged me, and were dedicated to my personal and academic growth.
I probably haven’t worn that shirt in at least a year; it fits a bit more snuggly than it did when I received it. I have many more Clarke shirts in my dresser now that fit me better than that one, but that yellow shirt is the first piece of Clarke gear that I owned and a reminder of how this school embraced me. I’ll probably hold onto it, even when I decide to part with my other ill-fitting Clarke shirts.
To my fellow graduates – Happy Graduation!
Live, Love, Learn,