After exams, your values will be tested

Four years ago, if someone had told me that upon my graduating the world would be mired in a global financial crisis and a black man would be our president, I would have laughed. But such is the world we seem to have inherited. And what an incredible ride it has been.

As I get ready to bid goodbye to four years of all-nighters at the Wells Library and 8 a.m. lectures in Ballantine Hall, I can’t help but reminisce about some of the best years of my life. I’m going to miss Bloomington, and I know I’m not alone when I say that I’ve learned more in fours years than most people do in their lifetimes.

It is strange then to think the world that awaits us will, for the most part, remain indifferent. Thanks to the economic downturn, a number of IU students will graduate with minimal prospects for employment, mounting student loans and increased
competition from students across the globe. In times like these, it's easy to feel thoroughly discouraged and defeated. Indeed, on more than one occasion, I've had friends remark that the current financial climate has forced them to settle, to accept a job they wouldn't have even considered taking four years ago.

But I’ll say, at the risk of sounding like an after-school special, there is dignity in every kind of job (except for investment banking, of course). Our career choice is only a facet of who we are. I know we’ve all heard this before, but what matters more is our perspective on life and our relationships with those around us.

This notion of elevating the needs of others before ours remains an appropriate one for the class of 2009. We, the 9/11 generation, came of age when sacrifice and public service were demanded of us. And we gave willingly, whether it was building community resources where none existed before or volunteering in record numbers during the presidential elections. At the same time, we’ve also been labeled Generation Q , the generation that limits political activism to Facebook and Twitter . What are we to make of these seemingly contradictory labels? More importantly, should we even care?

I know that for graduating seniors the concerns are far less lofty than what I’ve described, and this is to be expected. It is difficult to expend a great deal of energy
on the ongoing genocide in Darfur when there are student loans to pay off. But it is also important to remember that activism, or a diluted version of it anyway, doesn’t end with college. In fact, the real world offers us our fi rst test on our values, and the room for compromise is small.

And if there’s anything I’ve learned throughout the course of my college experience, it’s that a life lived compromised and beholden to our baser instincts is no life at all.

Congratulations to all those graduating this week. You’ve earned it.