We all get jazzed seeing our students successfully searching for their dreams and their passions.
The Boston University community and the student life experience inspire us. During your time at the University, I hope you looked around and caught the vibe. Listened to music. Read as much as you could. I hope you got around campus to see the community at its best.
You’ve been on a long journey. Pause to celebrate. You took deep breaths and listened to the bray of your heart. Congratulations again.
Explanations of the spirit of this place are complicated. This place is about the power of now. There is no script. A place full of split-second decisions to fulfill what the moment requires. This is a grand conversation. Inspired thinking. A cool urban campus. Historic. Caring.
Style floats through this place — it is both lyrical and thought-provoking. Style in a place where the mind and the heart dance together. Hope you enjoyed it and that you see its reflection in the people, streams, conversations, posts, status updates and pictures.
Thank you for making this place vibrant.
May joy walk beside you
Let beauty surround you.
And, let kindness guide you.
Peace.
In addition to our students, credit is due to Sylvia Plath, Wynton Marsalis, and Geoffrey C. Ward, Ilan Stavans and Verónica Albin, George H. Bass, and Brenda Ueland for the inspiration they gave me for writing this post.
I have learned to take time each day to celebrate our families, our communities, and the young people who give us their potential and opportunity to be our best selves. I rarely take the time to celebrate the people who got me to this place — the poets, thinkers, creators, the enthusiastic, the hard working, the young, and, the inspiring. Celebrating achievement and contribution that is present is, personally, preferable to lifting memories.
Each day, I try to take a moment to meditate. I offer you Howard Thurman’s For A Time of Sorrow, that I have carried with me during the last few days, for any of your additional reflection:
I share with you the agony of your grief.
The anguish of your heart finds echo in my own.
I know I cannot enter all you feel
Nor bear with you the burden of your pain;
I can but offer what my love does give:
The strength of caring,
The warmth of one who seeks to understand
The silent storm-swept barrenness of so great a loss.
This I do in quiet ways,
That on your lonely path
You many not walk alone.
Finally, I will not be shaken from believing in the value of travel. I am humble when I kick it with people I have never met. Sure, it’s challenging and uncomfortable, but my life has been about spending time off the block; out of the neighborhood; in a new place. Travel reminds me of my size and, ultimately, transforms me. I think more when I travel – the more I think, the more human I feel.
Brand, spankin’ new wannabe Terriers are on the street.
First, the practical. Recognize the City as a character in your life – understand the energy of cities and places. It’s the place where you can come to change it up. Restore. Write your songs. Spit your prose. Make your coin. Create. And, do you.
You don’t need and excuse to be interesting around here. Don’t worry, it’s acceptable to think and know about societal innovators; books of note; art and artists; music; film; and, design. Don’t pooh-pooh the fashion and style.
After you’ve got the practical down, start working on your cool.
“Supposed to” has no spot on our squad. Dreams and joy collide on Comm Ave. Come here to have your greatest passions meet the world’s big, bad, and bold needs. Dole out your sweet kisses to the love you know now, but save a few for the love you’ll find.
Snore under those flowers for so many hours. Wake up every time to a beautiful day.
Can’t wait to see you on the Ave Terrier.
Dream. Get your cool on. Love. (And, a little music for your start.) Peace.
