Conservative Student News

Ah, the first weeks of college. They are a barraged bewilderment of two thousand some new faces. One is introduced to what may become either a time of learning and prosperity or a struggle to survive.

While the bank accounts empty and one’s diet enters a new phase of Ramen Noodles and Frosted Flakes, one must ask themselves, “Is it worth it?” One would hope it is. However, this response has been engrained within our minds for so long that it seems forced and unrealistic. It becomes a possibility that a student may begin to lose focus and become discouraged from completing his or her goal. College ought to be a time of expanding the mind, discovering who we are, and learning about how we are to relate to the world. It should not dissuade an individual from seeking truth about who we are.

One may become forced to look for a reason to enjoy learning. If only most students could realize the incredible power that knowledge carries with it. This is the function of language for every course at St. Thomas. It pulls one out of self and thrusts them in headlong to reality. This reality will eventually become more tangible to each individual over time.

Here at UST, the idea of communication displays within itself a unique power to pull oneself into the whole of creation. As many students who have taken an English course will attest to, reading the written word immediately pulls oneself into the Nights of Gatsby, the fire barrage barracks of Slaughter House Five, or the high seas of Moby Dick. For words, even when presented without purpose, hold within themselves a charade, which is the mystery of communication.

Grasping the power of language leads one to a deeper understanding of unity and purpose. Language takes many forms, which nonetheless, accomplish its purpose of communicating and uniting oneself with the whole of society. We are much too great of beings to live our whole life in the confines of our own heads, never conveying our thoughts or ideas. College has a purpose for exactly this reason. One does not need to search the deep recess of the heart to find a purpose to go to class and learn. But rather, one must learn that class is not always about the given subject. It is about uniting themselves to the world outside.