We’re Going Back to State!
My niece, Haley, did it again. She qualified for the state tennis tournament for the second consecutive year. Big news in these parts.
When she qualified as a freshman, I posted some thoughts. I put her accomplishment in a historical perspective. This essay will frame her latest exploits on the tennis court from a different point of view.
I mention Harvard University in many of my essays. Why? Is that just a flex? I am wearing a Harvard hoodie right now; do I walk around with that to show off? Not at all. I have no interest in impressing anyone. For as long as I can remember, I have been out only to impress myself. No other opinions have ever mattered much to me.
I arrived on campus in 1986 and received my second degree in 1993. I left in 1992 and wrote my thesis back in Ohio. While in Cambridge, I told anyone who would listen that we were living in what we would eventually refer to as “the good old days.” I knew that was true for me, and I spent every day taking in my surroundings. I really did appreciate how special every moment was. I miss that campus every day.
A month ago, I was talking to Haley. I told her about a question I heard come up quite often at Harvard. In my experience, it is a question specific to that campus. I am sure other people discuss it, but it was always in the air at Harvard. If not expressed explicitly, it was always implied. I asked Haley if she could guess the topic of the mysterious query. Her initial guess was the meaning of life. Good guess but wrong. I am sure many people think along those lines and ask the appropriate questions. This question, the one on the minds of many people in Cambridge on that campus, is different.
In other posts, I have mentioned that Haley’s grandfather, PaPops, was the first high school graduate on her dad’s side of the family. Not only that, he was the first to even attend high school. Trust me that is a lot of inertia to overcome. I recently read Tara Westover’s Educated and am happy for her. She managed to escape the cycle of ignorance. That is not the easiest thing to do. An unseen tug pulls people back to the past; that is just how it is.
I remember my mom calling down to West Virginia to tell her relatives that I was studying at Harvard. None of them had ever heard of Harvard University. One asked if the school had a good football team. And on and on it goes…
That inertia caused by family history will not impact Haley at all. She has good role models. Unlike me, she does not have a bunch of uneducated uncles on missions to drink themselves to death in their 40s. Trust me that makes a difference. She is in a great private school surrounded by high achievers. Listen when I say that also makes a difference. Back in the day, my cohorts exhibited no such potential.
So, finally, we get to the question. What is that question that I asked Haley to guess? It is something that she and she alone will decide on. Is it relevant to her? She is the only arbiter of that decision, no one else. She will determine if it is her responsibility to make a contribution to humanity or not. Only she will decide if she is required, due to her abilities, to leave the world a better place than she found it.
It plays out in the following manner. “All right, Bubba, what equation will be carved on your gravestone?” I heard that question in varying forms throughout my Cambridge years. “What contribution to humanity are you going to make?” Indeed, that was another form of the same question. “Will The New York Times even care that you passed? Will you get an obituary, or will you die anonymously?” The people at Harvard, in general, arrived on campus asking themselves those questions which are, in essence, the same question. And if they weren’t asking it when they arrived, they were asking it when they left.
It comes down to apparent responsibility. Does a talented individual have an obligation to substantially contribute to humanity? I don’t know. Harvard University made it explicit that any graduate was tasked with conjuring up a contribution to society. That part of the implied mission statement was made clear. For others, the answer to that question is left to every individual; outside opinions do not matter. I know profound impacts can be made with ballet slippers, computer keyboards, guitars, and (of course) tennis racquets. I think everything will be fine if we maximize our abilities, whatever they may be. The specifics seem to me to be irrelevant.
If you think such a question is designed to put undue pressure on people, you approach the issue incorrectly. The question is more of a guiding principle, a way to clarify motivations. If you can ask if your actions are making the world a better place, then you are taking a well-considered, thoughtful path, not the route of selfishness or greed.
There it is, the question Haley may or may not ask herself. It is up to her to decide. For now, she just needs to work hard, learn as much as possible, and enjoy those “sprinkles on the cupcake” at the state tennis tournament. For the rest of her life, there will be no tugs of inertia. That I can guarantee. All she will feel is the wind beneath her wings. She has lots of people in her corner making sure of that.
