This week I spent a morning welcoming new students to campus for New Student Orientation. Two days of nervousness, making friends, finding classrooms, and learning what university is about.
I was working with my home faculty, the Faculty of Arts, welcoming students getting them signed in and sorted into their groups.
I love students. I watch them, so full of energy, nervous, excited, the whole of their lives ahead of them and a world of possibilities. I observe them from the other end of the string. My life, optimistically, two thirds over. I will admit to a little jealousy at all the firsts they have in front of them. So much love ahead of them. So much discovery, of the world and of themselves.
There they were lined up, one of many lines they would be standing in for the next four or five years, hoping they had made the right choice. Or positive that they had. So many will change majors, change directions, change their minds, change their hearts. They will grow so much in their brief time with us. They will make friends that will be friends for life. They will overcome challenges they felt were insurmountable. They will learn how to navigate a complex institution. They will exit that same institution with a new perspective on the world, with their focus broadened, ready (hopefully) to take on the world.
It’s an exciting time. It brings a tremendous energy to campus. And it inspires me. Brings me hope for the future. During the summer the campus is indeed beautiful, but empty. It’s like a house, not a home. Sure the line ups at the food court are short, and tables easy to find. But there is a hollowness to a school that has only a few students in it. Next week when classes begin in earnest the campus will explode with energy and life. Happy chatter, students hugging friends they haven’t seen in months, nervous first years trying to navigate the halls, packed with hundreds of other students finding their way. And we staff and faculty members trying to plan our days around class changes so we don’t get caught in the wave of bodies. I will never tire of this energy. That’s why I took this job, because it isn’t hard to see the future, all I need to do is walk through campus to see it. And being a part of it is irresistible.