Author Archives: dm148962

My favorite Freshman Seminar enrichment workshop was the performance of Baruch Voices last week.  The performance, which consisted of professional actors reciting monologues written by freshmen, was captivating.  The readers, or actors, created a visual image of the subject.  They owned the characters of the students they were quoting.  The pieces performed had an amazing variety and depth.  The dramatization of a satire on quitting smoking made me laugh.  Another one, abut suicidal thoughts, frightened me.  A third piece which eulogized a deceased friend I found sad.  Clearly, my fellow students are facing many challenges during their first semester here at Baruch, yet some find time to find the humorous side of life.  The overall arc of the presentation was one of hope, aspiring for a brighter tomorrow.  The world will be a better place in 2016.

I made many important choices before and during my first semester at Baruch College.  What school to attend.  What apartment to live in.  Who to hang out with.  When to study.  When to play.  Many decisions were perhaps less important.  What to eat.  When to sleep.  When to talk.  When to stay silent.  Some decisions are yet unmade.  What major to work on.  To transfer, or not.  What career to pursue.

And I’ve learned independence is beautiful.  Sometimes, a decision can be wrenching:  What would have happened?  Yet life, it seems, is made up of decisions.  Decisions that must be made.  Why?  Because life is not a staircase, it’s an escalator.  If I don’t decide, life will decide for me.  And I will have no one to blame but myself.

So I plan to live life and decide!  Will the decisions always be right?  No.  Is it risky?  Yes.  But risk is a funny thing.  It can’t be avoided:

RISKS

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool,
To weep is to risk being called sentimental.
To reach out to another is to risk involvement.
To expose feelings is to risk showing your true self.
To place your ideas and your dreams before the crowd is to risk being called naive.
To love is to risk not being loved in return,
To live is to risk dying,
To hope is to risk despair,
To try is to risk failure

But risks must be taken, because the greatest risk in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing.
He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow or love.
Chained by his certitude, he is a slave; he has forfeited his freedom.
Only the person who risks is truly free.

Often attributed to the poet and thinker, Leo Buscaglia, the real author of this inspirational verse is Janet Rand.

Carpe Diem!

Dickon McPherson

Hi, it’s me, Dickon.  I’ll make it short.  I’m the sixth kid of nine.  I had the best parents, great childhood in western Pennsylvania.  That’s not Philadelphia.  Think deer-huntin’, truck-drivin’, wood-splittin’, in-grown, conservative, back-in-the-holler country.  By the way, that’s the place to grow up.  Lazy summer afternoons, the sound of leaves rustling overhead, water rippling, fishing with a friend.  Long walks through a still, silent, snow-covered evening, just Dad ‘n me.  No worries.

The big world was there when I needed it.  That was 2008, junior high school.  Barack Obama was my hero.  I saw him as the solution to every problem.  That’s right, naïve.  On election day, with two freshman friends, we walked down to the county Obama Campaign Headquarters.  (A county is like a borough, but with less people, more hunters.)  We canvassed the entire town, walking down all three streets, knocking on doors.  We asked people to vote.  We changed the world.

Today I’m a Tolkein fan (see picture).  I am passionate about the Pittsburg Steelers and fighting climate change.  Corporations own President Obama, but he’s better than Mitt.  I guess we were wrong four years ago.  We can’t hire someone to change the world.  It is up to us.

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