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What are you here for?I REMEMBER TELLING MY FRIENDS I was going to come to IIT. They all responded the same way, "Isn't ITT Technical Institute the #%*$ as the DeVry Institute?" They laughed, I didn't. They continued, "Isn't it really cold there? You do know that it stays pretty warm down at ITT?" More laughing.The other day, a friend asked me if I would trade my four and a half years at IIT, to go anywhere else. He said I could go to MIT, Carnegie Mellon, or anywhere else. Money was no issue; I just had to choose. My response will shock many of you: I said I wouldn't trade IIT for anything. So, why wouldn't I trade IIT, with every annoyance, every problem, every discomfort, every single thing we spend our meals complaining about? There are two reasons. The first reason is my faith. I am a Christian. We believe that God has a plan for the life of each person. All they need do is accept it. God's plan for me involved IIT. In the Bible, James, the brother of Jesus, wrote "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." (James 1:2-4, NIV) James realized that through the trials that we face, and IIT can produce some big ones, God builds our perseverance. James goes on to note that Perseverance must work in our lives. Perseverance is what builds our character, make us better people, not the trial. We've all heard the line, "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger." That really isn't true. The Probability and Statistics (MATH 474) Exam I took earlier this semester didn't kill me. But did it really make me stronger? |
The trial, in and of itself, can never make you stronger. It is what you are willing to do with the trial that makes you stronger. If I am willing to let the exam expand or extend my perseverance, then and only then will I become stronger. If I just let the trial or the exam happen, I may in fact become weaker. I may lose hope and not see that there is life after MATH 474. Even Arthur Lubin would never think that his exam would make me stronger. The point of the exam was to prove I know something about Probability and Statistics. Perseverance is the side effect of the exam, not the expected result. In four and a half years I have experienced innumerable trials, exams, annoyances, pains, and just about every stupid thing you could think of. But each these things have allowed me to let Perseverance "complete its work." No matter whether you agree with my beliefs or not, you must admit that IIT sometimes seems like one trial right after another. Let me tell you, it really is one trial right after another. Some of these things are the Administration's fault; others are just college life. Either way you deal with or you leave IIT. IIT is hard. This is no place for the weak. If you make it here, you'll make it anywhere. You'll be ready to survive anything. (Don't you think this would make a great recruitment slogan?) Remember, there is life after the trial. Live it, don't waste it. I just get to do a little bit more living then the rest of you, at least for now. The second reason is the people I've met. Growing up, my mother always reminded us that it is not what a place looks like or what it has that make you fit in, it is the people. How many universities are out there where a professor is genuinely annoyed that she can't remember your whole name? This of course occurs after you haven't had Anna Dollar for a course in two years. She will be missed by all, especially those who had her for classes. |
How many universities have two professors who are fully willing to say, "Hi!" and talk with you even though they have no idea who you are? Well, at least I think that Sergio Kalpakjian and John Way didn't know who I was my freshman year. How many universities do you know of where a reporter who just wrote an article in which a source says something negative about an administrator and gets invited to interview that administrator? Most people would not be Gerard Voland, and most people would expect the interview to be published. How many universities can you walk by a professor's or dean's office and just talk? At the risk of angering a few professors, let me give you a list, Dean Terry Shapiro, Dean Sohair Elbaz, John O'Leary, Greg Pulliam, Paul Barrett, Peter Johnson, Jeff Budiman, David Arditi, Sergio Kalpakjian, John Way, Gerard Voland, Jay Shen, and Sidney Guralnick among many others. That is just the professors, what about the students? How many universities give you the ability to be entertained by a crazy man in boxers with his phone hooked up to his speakers? Take this same guy to an IHOP and he orders not only baby carrots and pancakes, but also warmed orange juice. And of course for the rest of the evening, he insists the waitress had an Adam's apple, even though she didn't. Where on earth can you find a university that makes diversity bigger than one single game? Where else could International Fest be bigger than Homecoming? Every year, we put our diversity on display for the world to see. Every year, we are allowed to actively learn about each other and break down the barriers that have been built. So why am I telling you all this? Why should you care if I am insane? The key to my survival here has been that Iknew why I was here. Each and every person needs to be able to answer the question, why are you still here? I already answered it and now I get to leave. Have you? |
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