Life of the Mind

My time at the University of Chicago was truly amazing in many ways. It was fraught with all the anxieties, failures, triumphs, and ambitions that a twenty-something college student could experience. It occurred to me, during my graduation weekend, just how remarkable of a school Chicago is, though. For, despite the fact that I may have tapped in to the universal experience of college in America, whatever that may be, I also experienced something unique.

But the uniqueness of my experience was coupled with an awareness that, all around me, there were people who were far less satisfied with their time at Chicago. They were unfulfilled by the promises made to them about the “life of the mind,” the picture the university painted of students were allowed to flourish intellectually and independently. Or, more commonly, they were upset with the trials and general discomfort of education at Chicago. They bear no love for their alma mater, and for that there is no remedy that may be provided.

This sense of dissatisfaction, to me, seems to be the fault of the students, not the university. For one, assuming that the “life of the mind” promised in college catalogues would be anything like the reality is truly absurd. Colleges and universities market an image constantly, but like all ideal forms, they are rarely fulfilled. Instead, the life of the mind was one that had to be forged by eachstudent individually. We are, after all, unique and individual thinkers to a large extent. The life of any mind must likewise be unique and individual. To rely on the image the university sent out- its one size fits all life of the mind- is to betray the very fact that every experience will be radically different.

But perhaps the real root of this disappointment stems from what can be seen as a culture of self-important, braggart professors who dominate student thought and life. I like to, personally, think of college tuition as going towards the payment of the use of resources. This does include professors, but it also includes the libraries and activities as well as, perhaps most importantly, the students gathered there. There are many I have encountered who argue that a “great books” education is possible with a library card and a good library. But this misses such an important, and wonderful part of college education. The jackasses and geniuses you find at a university test your beliefs. They try patiences and integrity constantly. And at UChicago, they do it to a much more infuriating and amazing level than most other places. As a second point to the advantage of university education over the autodidact’s path, I like to think of universities and professors as a time saving institution for people willing to learn. As my professor of History, Dain Borges, said in class once, professors are there to save you time. Autodidacts often spend time revisiting ideas that have been disproven, reading books that end up on a dead end trail, or chasing snipes. A professor, at least a good one, will have already seen these trails and paths and know that they will bear no fruit. And they are there to guide you away from proven dead ends and on to the path towards your own discovery. There are bad professors, certainly, who think themselves too important to help undergraduates in their research and education. But they were the minority in my time at Chicago. Maybe that was because I stayed away from the celebrity professors.

But what of the people who hated Chicago for its difficulty and lack of fun. I certainly resented the apparent lack of parties and great times. But that is not to say they did not exist, they just weren’t all that frequent. But, I chose Chicago because it was a difficult environment to navigate intellectually, emotionally, and socially. This is no defense of Chicago’s environment, and its no consolation for people who want the Chicago degree but not the proverbial bitch slap the institution delivers on a quarterly basis. But, during graduation, as I thought back on my four years, I felt somehow fulfilled in a very real way by what I had gone through. I went through embarrassments and breakdowns as well as success and triumph. I was forced to face my short comings and, thought not assuaged, have recognized that they must change if I am to survive in my chosen line of work. Its never comfortable to feel stupid or face failure in spite of one’s best efforts, but it is absolutely necessary. Everyone at Chicago is amazingly smart, and they will rarely have anyone else tell them or show them their faults outside of Chicago. Well, unless grad school is in your future (let the failure really begin).

As a final note, I’d just like to remind anyone from UChicago just how special your time and education is. On my visit to Princeton, I heard repeatedly that the undergraduates were “coddled.” The Core and the way we are educated at Chicago is fairly unique, and a degree from Chicago is known to come with certain degrees of admiration. Not everyone takes classes like Hum and Sosc. Not everyone is held to the kind of standard people at Chicago are. There are many great universities out there, and many that produce amazing students, but there is no place like Chicago. We are not better than everyone else, we’re just different. And we’re different in a very remarkable way. Four years of your life is far too long to be upset and angry. Four years of your life should not be spent in misery and contempt. All around you there is a wonderful experience to be had- you merely have to have it.

“i feel like i’m dragging a refrigerator down a dirt road in hell right now, but i will take beauty and wonder just the same”
-Blake Schwarzenbach