Life Under the Tower: Spring has Sprung!

Life Under the Tower blurbs run in a regular e-newsletter of the same name to students at Belmont University. Archives are here: http://blogs.belmont.edu/underthetower/

I don’t know what you did last week, but I’ve heard enough stories of sunny places and ski slopes, adventures in other countries, and relaxation at home to make me good and jealous. I’m glad many of you had such eventful Spring Breaks. I’ve heard from others of you who didn’t have “adventures” per se, but used the break to simply catch up on other things like sleep, homework, jobs, and relationships. I can relate better to that. I didn’t jet off to an exotic locale (unless you call the Beaman Center “exotic”); I just barricaded myself in my office and dove into the things that had buried my desk. Whether your Spring Break was glamorous or not, at least it was exactly that, a break– a much-needed pause in the rush and routine of the spring semester.

Every year, this pause is a mile marker in life under the tower that signals a shift in the perspective of those living it. Before Spring Break, for better or worse, we feel like we have plenty of time; the semester is still gearing up, getting going. We feel like there’s a lot going on, but there’s also plenty of time to get it all done. After Spring Break, it feels like time suddenly got short; we’ve got even more going on, but we realize it’s going to be hard to finish before the end. In the space of one little week, our perspective goes from ramping-up-to-hit-our-stride to hurrying-up-to-beat-the-clock. Freshmen, who are barely over feeling new, find themselves blinking at the realization that their first year is almost over. Seniors, who already thought things were moving a little too fast this winter, are shocked at how much larger commencement and life beyond the tower can loom now that spring has officially sprung.

For such a short space on the calendar, Spring Break makes a big difference in our attitude, and make no mistake, attitude matters. Your emotional posture shapes a lot of your experience. When you’re excited or hopeful, you’re stronger and more resilient. You dream more and give yourself more fully to your experience. But when you’re anxious or overwhelmed, you’re weaker, more fragile, and you find yourself managing life more than really living it. We’ve all experienced the difference. Here’s some advice to make the most and get the most out of the last two months of the school year: remember why you’re here.

With the change of perspective Spring Break brings, it’s natural to tune-in more fully to what you have to do, and that’s not a bad thing. (Setting your eye harder on the prize as the finish line comes into view is good strategy…) But it’s important to tune in more fully to why you have to do it too. If the rush of the year’s end leads you to let the What eclipse the Why, it’s hard to finish strong. After Spring Break, the weight of responsibility naturally rises, and you can’t afford to let the sense of opportunity that sustained you before Spring Break disappear.  You need that sense of purpose and possibility to be strong when it counts. I put it this way to the leaders I work with: People don’t burn out from too much to do, but from too little reason to do it.

In the next couple months of your life under the tower, when your To Do List looks long and your time looks short, the key to not only making it, but making the most of it lies in this principle. You’re at your best and can accomplish amazing things when you don’t let the What eclipse the Why.

Life Under the Tower: Make the Most of It

Life Under the Tower blurbs run in a regular e-newsletter of the same name to students at Belmont University. Archives are here: http://blogs.belmont.edu/underthetower/

Welcome Back to Life Under the Tower in 2013! I hope your holidays gave you a chance to recharge because the Spring Semester’s arrived and it’s bringing all kinds of new opportunities and challenges.

I’ve made a career out of college because I loved it when I was a student. I put everything I had into it, and I took everything out of it that it had to offer. I didn’t really have a plan per se; I just decided to try everything that came my way and then had to rise to the challenges en route. This approach led me to sample all kinds of unexpected experiences and to explore all kinds of new interests and relationships. It also led me to learn and to grow in all kinds of ways I couldn’t have orchestrated or anticipated. Now many years later, I Iook back on the college whirlwind even more gratefully, and I appreciate what a rare season of opportunity, exploration, and community it can be.

Sometimes its hard to appreciate the scope of something when you’re too close to it, so I thought I’d remind you that Life Under the Tower is pretty rich and amazing. It offers more than you expected and sometimes more than you bargained for, but making the most of it is a decision you will never regret. Here are three thoughts for you to consider as you look to make the most of your Life Under the Tower this spring.

Efficiency is overrated. The pressures of money and time make it seem like the college experience is something to be negotiated as efficiently as possible, but if you insist on the shortest path between two points you are going to miss important things along the way. I took too many classes (mainly because the mysterious art of scheduling and an advisor or two eluded me) and explored countless “distractions” in campus life and off-campus activity. As a result, I often felt like there weren’t enough minutes in the day and I barely managed to get everything done in time to graduate. But I’ve never regretted it, and those experiences only came once. College is a unique season to be exploited rather than rushed-through. It’s not as much the last hurdle between you and the life your looking toward as it is a buffet of opportunities that may not come again. Fill your plate.

Failure is underrated. With all eyes on you in this season, it’s tempting to think that success, if not perfection, is the only goal. Good grades, good evaluations, good relationships, and good contacts seem to be the things that matter most and I suppose that’s true in one sense, but in my own life some of the bad ones have proven more enduring and precious over time. The classes that wore me down, the relationships that went down in flames, and the leadership experiences I botched up royally taught me lasting lessons about the man I want to be and the people and projects I’m called to serve. If I’d known that my failures would be so important in defining and refining my character and competencies I might’ve put myself out there even more. Sure, performance matters, but college isn’t the time to play it safe emotionally or intellectually just to amass an impressive record. It’s the time to explore and test yourself. It may not feel like it while you’re in it, but this is a much more forgiving time for failure than most other times in your life, so go for it while you can.

Some relationships are forever. College life is an interpersonal barrage. People and relationships are everywhere, all the time. This is the charm and challenge of community living, (and a little daunting sometimes to introverts like me) and because they are so prominent, I find it curious that it’s so easy to take them for granted. There’s something about college life that seems to simultaneously elevate and devalue relationships in our lives. (I think it’s basic economics: the seemingly endless supply of them makes them seem less precious, less hard-to-come-by.) It’s worth remembering how rare this season is in the context of your life. It’s unusually fertile ground for personal connections and relationships grow more easily with more opportunity, more energy, and more time. Of course you’ll form meaningful relationships throughout your life, but it seems to get harder as life moves on. (Some of you upperclassman can appreciate this as you’re realizing you have to be far more intentional and attentive to your relationships now than you did earlier in your college experience…) The good news is that some of the people you get close to now will stay that way across all time and distance. Some of the memories you make now and the commitments you forge with others will prove indelible and will support and sustain you for the rest of your life. The odd thing is that these “forever relationships” often sneak up on you in the midst of all the others and they begin in completely inauspicious ways. (I bet you can’t even remember how you and some of your dearest friends first met.) So keep your eyes and hearts open in the barrage and lean into the personal connections you make along the way.

Hope that’s good food for thought. Here’s wishing you a Happy New Year and a strong start to the Spring Semester. Whether you’re a Senior and the end is in sight, a Sophomore or Junior in the thick of things, or a Freshman just hitting your stride, I urge you to make the most of your Life Under the Tower this term.