Bridgewater State University - Alpha Yearbook (Bridgewater, MA)

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President Adrian Rondileau Not too long ago a student expressed regret to me that his parents had made him go to college. He would have preferred to go in the military service first and then make up his mind as to whether or not he wanted to go to college. He felt that they had, in effect, robbed him of the opportunity to make up his own mind and thus be enthusiastic about his college work which he was passing, but not tackling with the enthusiasm and larger success of which he felt capable. All of us can see, in this situation, which is repeated countless thousands of times on every college campus in the country, certain familiar elements. There is an age-old rebellion of the young against parental author- ity. There is on the other side of the coin the desire of parents to keep their sons and daughters from mak- ing serious mistakes and missing great opportunities which they feel will not return again. The above analysis is probably true enough insofar as it goes. Perhaps there is much more to it which should be of interest to college students and especially to college seniors as they go further on to graduate work, or a position, and, in most cases, to marriage. One of my acquaintances, a very distinguished edu- cator, summed up the deep significance of this when he made the following evaluation of his own life. He said that he had always been resentful of authority and of the demands of any particular job in life — partly perhaps because he had never gotten along very well with his father. At any rate, at the age of 45 — about double that of the average college graduate — he had realized after much soul-searching that he was suffering from a common psychological attitude epito- mized in the aphorism: The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. He said he had finally come to the conclusion that every situation had its drawbacks as well as it advantages, that people had their shortcomings in every circumstance and that he would never be happy unless he tackled his present position — whatever it was — with full enthusiasm and without any excuses. Along these lines he would say to the student, Don ' t use an excuse for muffing your opportunity, the fact that you are in college at your parents ' insistence. You will always have equally valid excuses — if you are looking for them — to muff the opportunity to make the most of any job, or any other situation, in which you find yourself throughout life. I know because I did it for 45 years. So it seems to me that this professional acquaintance of mine has given all of us the best possible counsel as we tackle the problems and the opportunities that lie before us. Don ' t become victim of ' The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence ' fallacy. Each of us can find numerous excuses to yield to this temptation — plenty of interesting and seemingly valid excuses. The point is that life is much more fun and much more productive either in college or graduate school or on the job, if one puts all these excuses aside and tackles the opportunities and problems with en- thusiasm and determination. Either attitude tends to become a habit. The habit of enthusiasm leads to much more personal happiness and success than the habit of dragging one ' s feet. Doesn ' t his insight have the authentic ring of the Voice of Experience? Adrian Rondileau President 12