Finding Inspiration Right Back Where I Started From

Photo Credit: Tracy K. Lee

NOTE: This entry is an edited version of a previous post I made this summer, based on a few more chance encounters with fellow SI alumni.




In terms of crazy adventures and late nights out, this summer was mediocre at best. By way of learning and discovering, this summer tops the charts.

If I could do it again, I would make no hesitation to start from Day 1. My four years at SI were the best four years of my life. Unfortunately, like most great things, I only recognized the fact in hindsight.

If I could... I would be involved in the campus community from the beginning. I would talk to people in my classes and form actual friendships. I would go to class each day and bask in learning from some of the most inspirational teachers in the world. I would go to FML every week from the start. I would allow myself to face social justice issues. I would put my talent to good use in the community. I would cheer on our Wildcats at as many sporting events as possible. If I could...

I read the blog of a friend's friend who recently walked the halls of SI as a visitor. She said that she finally understood the reason why two alumni she knew were so passionate about their high school. "It's beautiful. You can see the ocean. I want to send my kids here." And I realize that no visitor will ever understand. The beauty of our campus is a distant second to the lasting experience each graduate endures through their time at SI.

Today I visited our campus once more and found myself drawn in yet again. Every time I go back, I know for sure that it is where I want to be.

This summer I've run into so many '05 alumni. Some best friends. Some I had short-term bonds with. Some I hardly even talked to while at SI. Yet every time it happens, we stop and have a conversation that goes beyond the "so... college" awkwardness. They have long-term goals. They are going abroad for significant periods of time. They casually mention grad school. They are doing something with their lives.

It really comes as no surprise as so many SI alumni before us have become successful in all factions of life: from Broadway to Wall Street, television to fashion, teachers to lawyers. I'm sure several high schools can say that about their alumni. Yet SI still has something more.

Students, teachers, administration, and alumni search for more. They are successful because they actively listen to their calling and work passionately toward something greater than themselves. They act in order to fulfill their purpose. Purpose comes first. Recognition last.

Then it hit me..

"We are SI." We've said it thousands of times. It was the theme of one of our yearbooks (2001-02). But it finally makes sense to me. When you get SI, you find it in you and in others who get it too.

We are SI. And I thank you for showing me that my time has not yet run out. :)

At Least I Have You to Thank for My Passion

"Why do my parents pay $40,000 a year for me to go to a school and be a part of a community that claims to stand for ideals that were the basis of my college decision, then violate my inclusion in it?"

My choice to go to LMU highlighted my choice to further the lessons I learned at my Jesuit high school: social justice, the education of the whole person, the ability to become a person with and for others... all for the greater glory of God. Though we stand as a Catholic institution, I have had trouble finding God in the community.

The newspaper decides to bring a speaker to campus who justifies the internment of Japanese AMERICANS and the racial profiling of people of Middle Eastern descent. Why? Supposedly, she is coming to speak solely about the first amendment. (UH... BULLSHIT. If her views were so insignificant, why were they advertised all over campus, why did the editor-in-chief STATE them in her introduction of the speaker, and why did she spend the first 12 minutes of her speech defending herself and putting down the students who disagree with her?)

The same newspaper allows the printing of an offensive list that alienates people on campus and angers many others. Then students write in response to the retraction of it calling it "humor," those offended as "sensitive," and criticizing the school they CHOSE to go to for "censoring free speech."

I refuse to believe that a newspaper that allows hate (yes, HATE) actually understands what a well-rounded Jesuit-educated student is. So spare me, and stop trying to justify your work quoting values that you clearly do not have. The US protects the right to freedom of speech, but here we work to protect human rights. You go to a school that is, first and foremost, a Catholic Jesuit institution. Well-rounded person implies someone who can think critically of what they hear. It means you listen to a view but do not take it only for face value. IT DOES NOT MEAN WE HAVE TO LISTEN TO SOMEONE WHO CRITICIZES EVERYTHING WE STAND FOR. (HOW CAN YOU LISTEN TO SOMEONE SO FULL OF HATRED THAT SHE MAKES JOKES ABOUT OUR CORE AND PUTS US DOWN FOR EXACTLY WHAT SHE'S DOING AS WELL?) It means we fight for the human rights of oppressed people. It means we give a fuck about someone who can't do it alone.

Next year, why don't you invite the man who assaulted Elie Wiesel to speak about the first amendment? Does he not have the right to free speech in his denial of the Holocaust according to your understanding of "free speech?" (TAKE NOTE: WE'LL WALK OUT ON HIM TOO. IT'S NOT HIS POLITICAL PARTY THAT WE DISAGREE WITH. IT'S HIS FAILURE TO MEET OUR COMMUNITY'S MISSION.)

We go to a school where, though supposedly only 40% of the population goes Greek, the Greek way of life is celebrated while the values and fight for diversity and interculturalism (two goals that LMU "focuses on") are left to the same few people who realize its lacking. I know what exchanges go on every week, but how many people on campus can tell me what Third Tuesday is? What Black History Month events have been on? What a SERVICE ORGANIZATION is??

If you do not believe in human rights and social justice, please tell me why you decided to come here in the first place. If it's for free speech or the pretty girls, please take yourself elsewhere. It's amazing to me that the people who leave this school before graduation are the ones who stand for the LMU mission but are disappointed with the lack of its action in our community. COME ON, LMU, LIVE UP TO YOUR MISSION STATEMENT.

You may argue with me that the people in the real world are far worse. But that's why I chose to make LMU my bubble. Unfortunately, not everyone believes in the safe space of a spiritual space (namely, Michelle Malkin and the students who applaud her). You cry out "FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS!" We cry out "SOCIAL JUSTICE" and "TRUE equality!" If college students don't believe they can change the world for the better, who will? I won't leave this place because I don't like you; I'll stay because my faith in the well-rounded persons who do exist outweighs my frustration with your failure.

If you feel that your freedom of speech is stifled here, then maybe you aren't meant to be a person for others. Learn what it means to be blessed as a part of a Jesuit community, and stop defending the hatred. When you leave this school and face the evils of the real world you so strongly believe in, I'll stay in my Jesuit bubble and pray to God that I can influence real men and women for others.