In my first week of college ever, I made a total fool of myself. I was sitting in West Range with a friend vaunting about a girl I did not know, but had seen everywhere. She was an upperclassmen, and I insisted that she was who I wanted to be. She acted in things I would have loved to act in, she carried books from the classes I wanted to be in, and above all, she gave the Student Council info session; boy oh boy did I want to be on be on Student Council. I was infatuated. I went on and on, and on, about how I envied everything that she did and was, and how my only goal I had for my entire college career was to do the things that she was doing now, to reach the heights that she had in the University community. And not only was I immeasurably naive and definitely aggrandizing, I was doing so at great, great length.
“Um, excuse me, I don’t mean to be awkward, but I think you might be talking about me.”
And there she was, sitting so close to me that I could have tapped her opposite shoulder. I had totally and completely missed that she was there. She had listened to me for probably ten minutes to make sure it was in fact her I was talking about, and then brought it up, yet only to introduce herself. She handled the situation with a grace and tact I’m not sure I would have been able to muster and asked if I was interviewing that night for Student Council, which I was. “Well it’s good to meet you,” she said, “I’ll be interviewing you, and,” sensing my humiliation and nervousness, “I’m sure you’ll knock it out of the park.” She then returned to her reading without the slightest ado, and I hurriedly finished my food and left. I was sure I had ruined any chance I had to get involved at the school.
Today, I no longer act and I certainly don’t take the classes I was so excited to take when I first arrived, but I did end up joining Student Council. That random meeting, which at first seemed so humiliating, ended up being the reason I have so committed myself to Student Council–I am able to surround myself with whole groups of people as kind, eloquent, and committed to what they love as the girl sitting next to me in West Range.
That, though, was full year ago, and since then I’ve learned a lot. I have learned the grace, compassion, and involvement are not Student Council traits, but rather traits of the University of Virginia student body. The reason I am on Council specifically is because this random encounter was the first of many random encounters I could have had, and my interview just happened to be that night. Things just fell into place.
The reason I’m putting all of this down now is this: with the deadline for applications approaching quickly, the day I have to inform many of you that you won’t be on Student Council this year is approaching in lockstep. Not because you are not good enough, or less qualified than those that were chosen; often it will just be because I can only have a committee of a certain size. You could be the most qualified, most passionate person on Grounds, and for whatever reason, I could just misjudge you, or maybe the group you interview with could just be lackluster. But whether you end up on Student Council or not, it doesn’t matter: you can always make a difference, and you can always follow your passion.
Steve Jobs once talked about how he viewed life as a series of dots, which only reveal how they connect in hindsight. Looking back, I know it was that chance meeting and ridiculous infatuation that got me involved with Student Council and marketing in general; just a random dot that changed my course and allowed me to find something that I now hold very dear. That dot will be there for all of you, somehow allowing you to find or bolster your passion. For some of you, that will mean Student Council, for some of you that will mean Greek life, for some of you that will mean a student group that you will go onto to create, but no matter what, that dot will fall into place for you. Any rejection note isn’t the end of the world, or even close to any sort of cataclysmic event; it’s only a tiny dot, one of thousands in your life, and it won’t make sense in isolation. Don’t concern yourself with it now.
In closing, I give you yet another paraphrase of Mr. Jobs: you have to trust that the dots are going to connect in your future. It might not be here with this Student Council letter. Hell, it might not even be this year. But you have to trust in what and who you are, and above all, you have to follow your passion; the dots will fall into place on their own. Don’t worry, you can look back and see how it all connects later.
Eric McDaniel
Marketing and Communications Chair
