It seems that the older we get the faster time goes by. A year seemed forever when I was little but now four years seems like yesterday! This past weekend I graduated from Clark University alongside about 600 other graduates. Although it was a long day, the Clark administration made it quite nice.
Shirley Brice Heath
The day started off with the Convocation ceremony for those undergraduates being recognized. I was recognized as being a member of the Fiat Lux Honor Society. At this ceremony, one of the most memorable speakers was Shirley Brice Heath. In her speech, Professor Heath spoke about the difference between the word LOVE and CARE. As she explained, the word love is grossly over used. On a daily basis we catch ourselves saying "I LOVE chocolate!" "I LOVE those shoes!" "I LOVE you!" By tossing this word around so much we've lost its true meaning. According to Professor Heath, what we really should be saying is CARE. Do you really CARE about chocolate? Probably not. Do you really CARE about those shoes? Not in the least. Do you really CARE about that person? Yes. When we really care about something or someone love will naturally follow. Professor Heath's message was a simple yet powerful one: the next time we go to say we LOVE something or someone stop and think, do we just like it a lot or do we really CARE about it?
Alan Khazei
Following Convocation was the actual Commencement Ceremony. Although the ceremony was long, the key note speaker Alan Khazei truly captured our attention. In his speech he spoke about a Chinese proverb that addresses blessings in disguise. The question that is continually asked within this proverb is "how do you know it's such a bad thing?" The heart of the proverb addresses situations that seem hopeless and bad. When things seem to be going poorly and it seems that the situation is terrible, how do we really know it is such a bad thing? Perhaps it is not a bad thing at all. Perhaps we are exactly where we're suppose to be and in fact this bad event is actually a door to something better that on our own we would never have discovered. Although we've always heard the saying "There's a reason for everything," sometimes these reasons don't seem good enough. However the saying "how do you know it is such a bad thing," seems to be much more apt. While things may seem bad at the time, they always get better. Without these bad things, there can be no good. It is important to not give up hope and to stay on the positive side of things, because as the Chinese proverb says, how do we know that what we're going through really is a bad thing?
Now that I've graduated it's hard to believe. I poured my heart and soul into four years of college, holding down two jobs, founding and co-chairing Relay For Life for 3 out of the 4 years, a member of an active honor society and coming out a Cum Laude. After all of that it's crazy to believe that I'm done. But with the knowledge and experiences that I've gained alongside these simple but powerful message Professor Heath and Khazei bestowed upon our graduating class I'm ready for the next big thing--whatever that may be!
This past weekend Clark University held its third annual Relay For Life. For those of you that don't know, Relay For Life is the American Cancer Society's main fundraising event. For communities Relay is a 24 hour event, however for colleges its a bit shorter. Clark's lasts for 16 hours. Participants form teams between 5-10 people and spend the year raising a minimum of $100--all of which goes towards the American Cancer Society.
In 2009, Katie Hafner a staff partner for the American Cancer Society came to me. She had seen that I had participated in Relay For Life at a neighboring college in Worcester, MA the year before and wanted to know if I was interested in starting a Relay For Life at Clark. I definitely was. That year would have around 195 participants and raise over $19,000. In our following year we had an even bigger turn out, with 210 participants as well as raising a little over $22,000. This year however, we would have the most successful Relay For Life yet!
In the third year of Clark University's Relay For Life, we had 260 participants and around $27,000! This is huge! Since Clark is such a small school as well as the bad economy, it is truly impressive that we were able to raise so much.
However, Relay For Life isn't all about the money. In the words of the American Cancer Society, it is also a time to Celebrate, Remember and Fight Back.
I know for me, I got involved with Relay for a number of reasons, however, the main one was for my family. My family is huge, my mom has 5 siblings and my father is the baby of 11. Each of these siblings has kids, and those kids have kids, so needless to say a "huge" family may be an understatement. Unfortunately for both sides of the family, cancer has an unwelcomed prevalence. Furthermore, with so many people in my family that have had cancer, the survival rate is extremely low.
Every year over 12 million people are diagnosed with cancer. This number is way too high. I started Relay at Clark so that I knew for a fact that I was actively doing something to help lower this number. I may not be able to find a cure, but at least I can do something to help that process along.
Relay For Life is also about community, coming together to help fight a disease that effects so many people and not just the cancer patients themselves, but their family and friends as well.
Seeking to bring the Clark community together, as well as find out why they Relay I, alongside the Ceremonies committee created the Clark University Why We Relay Video.
The last three years I have put the majority of my energy into planning Relay For Life. I will be sad to not be on the executive board next year since I graduate in three weeks, but I look forward to coming back and seeing the progress next spring.
If you aren't involved in Relay I strongly encourage everyone to check out their local community Relay or college one. They are incredibly fun and powerful.
Congratulations Clark University on an amazing Relay For Life. Until next year!
