George Washington University - Cherry Tree Yearbook (Washington, DC)

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■ mmmmmmm ' .v mam Rick Santos 24 G.W.U.

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Bill Smith G.W.U. 23

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diversity of the student body there are little or no com¬ mon characteristics binding the student body. Each of us lives our life at GW a little bit differently and the school is flexible to allow this individualism to exist. For working students, DC is a place of interesting jobs as well as many rejection letters. Those who work also get to see more of the city than many others. For students trying to make it on their own, DC and GW are dreadful¬ ly expensive places where living and being a student seem mutually exclusive. There are also those older students who have come back to finish B.A.’s and M.A.’s after a long day of real job work. Those of us who think it is hard to study in Thurston should think what it would be like to study with a full-time job and family. Many of us not only face the challenge of being away from home, but also the new language that accompany a new country. What characterizes these students, and will eventually mold them into graduates? Many of us came here in our late teens, unsure, perhaps apprehensive, and suffered through our first awkward weeks. Years later, shaped by the bending, pushing and pounding of faculty, class- work and day to day existence we emerge slightly more sure, still apprehensive (but about new endeavors) and finally over most of our awkwardness. In many respects GW is still, like incoming freshman, at the end of its adolescent years. While it is certainly older than its seemlingly impressive new concrete exter¬ ior, GW is still experiencing growing pains. Like the cocky teenager, too often the boasts of the University exceed its real abilities. We and the University are stretching mind, sinew and the limits of conventionality to keep up with our claims. We are perhaps too bold, too ambitious like many an adolescent. We either see all things as possible, or adopt an attitude of bored cyni¬ cism, both of which are characteristic of the adolescent Adolescents are ever in motion, and represent perhaps the most interesting stage of life. GW is in a very similar constant state of change. The school is relatively free (for better or worse) of stodgy traditions or antiquated rituals. At times this leaves many of us with a sad emptiness. We somehow expect some traditions, and without them we are somewhat adrift. It is, however, our very lack of tradition that make it easy for our diverse student body to coexist together. When I think of what it is like to be a student at GW, I certainly think of change, but more importantly I think of responsibility. Beginning with the simple things like hav¬ ing grades and bills mailed to us, we take on new respon¬ sibilities. Over my years here I’ve seen more and more students realize a social responsibility as they volunteer for community service projects. Slowly we are realizing and acting on our responsibility to each other. Students have begun to develop a sense of spirit, new forums like the Town Meetings have opened, new newspapers have started. Perhaps like any adolescent we and our University are at that stage of life where we are finally growing up. My other fondest memory as a student here is one night just before Christmas break I walked through the snow to the Lincoln Memorial. On the steps there was only the cold silence of stone, but before me lay a magnificent view of an alabaster city. The snow and shimmering marble of the capitol in the distance com¬ bined to postcard perfection. I realized I had come full circle from the awed freshman to the blase sophomore back once again to awe. I suddenly realized I was home, GW had ceased to be merely a place to study for four years. It was now a part of me and I was a part of it. There is no mistake or slip of speech when I call GW and DC home. For many students it is here in a constantly changing school, during the routine of studying, and between parties and vacations, that we (almost in spite of ourselves) become members of the academic disci¬ plines and the University. We hardly notice the change in tone of argument or in references to the University, but we have changed. We retain our critical view and even our cynicism, but we can now see the good as well as the bad. No need to try and impress us with a headline of another University blunder or callous act, we have seen its kinder human side. As students we have brought the greatest and the least of our talents and learned the best and the worst from our peers and faculty. What is it like to be a student in GW? It is change amongst change. It is the move from adolescence to adulthood as our school grows up beside us. It is filtering a myriad of experiences to try and assemble a cohesive life. There are the trials and tribulations of any college life, but we at GW perhaps more than anywhere else, have the ability to shape our college as it grows. We have no equivilant of Harvard Yard or the Army-Navy game, all we have are opportunities: opportunities to try our hand in the job market, an internship, community service, a new course offering, new living arrangements, new student organizations, new publications, and a host of other options. Put simply, it is a question of what you prefer. Student life is a series of options that can only be met with an open mind and an adventurous soul. TEXT BY DAN AMUNDSON G.W.U. 25