During my first year on the U. Arkansas campus in the School of Architecture, my studio professor – Judy Brittenum – conducted exit interviews with each student as the spring semester wound down.  During mine, she quite assertively told me, “My, gosh, I hope you know that you have the power to change the world”.  Very few things in my life have resonated with me like that statement.  I hope that you all know that the same is true for you.  You’re all going to change the world; the only question now is how and by what magnitude.

Now, my experience at Arkansas has been much different than most.  I transferred here after two years as a cadet at West Point and then decided to pick up a new, 5-year degree.   I somehow became our ASG President after only one year in the organization, as a non-traditional student, and without any Greek affiliations.  There has been very little about my college experience that could be called conventional, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

People are always going to try and box you in; place barriers around the uncomfortable paths and choices in front of you.  But as Oscar Wilde put it, “Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination”.  That’s perhaps the best piece of advice I can offer:  Don’t be afraid to test your limits and over-extend yourself.  You’ll never understand how great you can be if you don’t push yourself once in a while.

Leaving home for college bring perhaps the most liberating aspect of adulthood – the freedom to choose.  However, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan once said, “To live is to choose.  But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why”.  Now, I had no clue who I was or what I stood for at 18.  And obviously, I also had little idea about where I wanted to go or why.

Some of you may know exactly how to respond to this already, and that’s outstanding.  Perhaps the most important thing I learned in my college process, however, is that it’s OK not to know.  We change so much in college that odds are that even if you do know right now, you’re going to answer that question differently in 3 or 4 years.  It can be tempting to pressure yourself into thinking that life has to be solved when you get to college, but I always think back to what Judy told me, and about how I’d rather spend a couple extra years in school if I can spend a lifetime doing exactly what I love.

So, spend some time thinking about what drives you, what makes you happy, and what makes you unique.  There’s a place for you in ASG, or at the Traveler, or the Volunteer Action Center, or any one of the 350 registered student organizations on this campus.  And if you don’t know where you belong when you finish reading this, remember that it’s OK to be unsure right now.  Our generation, perhaps more than any before us, has to deal with a multiplicity of problems involving the climate, energy, social justice, and it all starts today.  I’ll close this letter with a favorite quote of mine from one of my favorite Arkansans, President Bill Clinton, who said, “Big things are expected of us, and nothing big ever came out of being small”.