Lesson from the past

At a historical campus like Rollins, inspiration during the stressful time between finals and the end of the year can be found around any corner; you just have to look. 

As finals season quickly approaches and the semester starts to spiral down towards finals, papers, and presentations, it’s easy to get caught up in the moment. You sprint between classrooms, beeline from your dorm straight to the Campus Center and back, and spend your mornings and evenings in the same Olin lobby sofa, neglecting anything outside the realms of your laptop screen. During stressful times like these, it’s easy to forget: easy to forget about your social life, easy to forget about eating properly, and, maybe most importantly, easy to forget that you’ve survived this season before.

We are a generation of short memories. Tweny-four hour news channels, live-Tweets, and a seemingly endless and constantly updating Facebook newsfeed has reduced our ability to properly recall not just past experiences, but the lessons learned from them as well.
The past can be a decieving concept; the word implies something that is now behind us, removed from us. However, the past is never gone, but rather, it is constantly around us.

Our beautiful campus is the epitome of this. After being here for more than a semester, the initial enamoured attitude towards the swaying Spanish moss and stunning historic architecture fades. But there’s more to just the superficial lovliness of these ground: there’s 128 years of history. In that large span of time, students, not so different from yourself, have endured the challenges and stresses that we all face. Like you, they walked up the steps of Mills, spent time with friends on Pinehurst porch, and walked through the arched walkways of Orlando Hall, and all the other buildings on campus.

They, just like you, endured not just academic stresses, but life challenges of all sorts. And they survived. Next time you’re speed walking from point A to point B across campus, take a few moments to actually look up, and learn from the past.