A few days ago, I started a new daily habit of writing a fun fact on the whiteboard on the door to my room. These facts aren’t things I learn in class. They aren’t “life hacks” or inspirational quotes. They are true facts about things that have happened in the past or about the way things are, and they are completely inconsequential, of no practical use to anyone. And that’s why they’re great!

Learning is not something that should always be a chore. Discovering more about the world around us should be fun and awe-inspiring! I want to do my part to kindle the joy of discovery in people around me, and in myself too. Fun facts, trivia, unnecessary knowledge are perfect for such inspiration. They don’t carry any responsibility with them. You don’t need to act upon them, you don’t even need to remember them! You just need to enjoy them and appreciate knowing something more about the fascinating world we live in.

The economics teacher at my high school, who I only knew through his role as my assistant basketball coach, said this to me and it has stuck with me ever since. Thinking about it in terms of majors, it means that we shouldn’t denounce someone for choosing to major in Econ and “selling their soul to Wall Street” so that they can make a lot of money. It also means that we shouldn’t disparage someone for “taking easy classes” and going into education where they’ll make significantly less money. Different people value different things because of: How they were raised

• How they define success
• Their personality
• Their experiences
• And other very personal, very variable things

The only thing we can hope is that everyone is OPEN to their values changing. What does this mean? It means being open to: DISCUSSION

• CONVERSATION
• DISCOURSE
• DIALOGUE
• EXCHANGE
• THE SYNONYMS GO ON for what is 2+ people sitting around a table talking and listening

with people who have different values from their own (which is, hint, everyone…it’s just a matter of how different) This discussion will never happen if we put our heads down and move through college like it’s just the next wrung of a ladder, the means to an end, a diploma-pumping machine (insert another tired cliche here if you please). If you wanted to do that, you should have just taken college online because it would have been a lot cheaper. “Oh, but it’s not as prestigious and I’d get lonely,” you say. Well, maybe that loneliness and that hunger to be pushed beyond the material would make you appreciate and take advantage of the prestige and tight-knit community of a place like Williams. Maybe a taste of online education should be a pre-req for admittance. The point of a college having a campus is to give the bright, hopefully unjaded 18-22ish year-olds a place to talk about and debate what makes life worth living and how to go about living life that way. The thing is: we’re probably not going to get this straight from a class…or at least not from the limited number of classes we’re able to take. That’s why we need to talk and reflect with our peers. To hear about the classes we’re not in. To hear about the lives we’re not leading. And to check and see if what we think is valuable actually is. Doing so will allow us to value and get value out of this fine education.

Division III knows the world is made of numbers.

Division II knows the world is made of ideas.

Division I knows the world is made of stories.

And they are all correct. The great privilege of a liberal arts education is being able to learn what all of these different ways of looking at the world have to offer. We can explore around and between the regions of human experience and knowledge that are often sharply divided and forcibly separated.

“Depth and Breadth” is the slogan that’s often used. Depth is fantastically challenging and rewarding. Depth is when you travel to the frontiers of human knowledge, and join the noble quest to expand them further, to map new territory and bring back the treasures you discover. However, I’ve been even more gratified so far by what I’ve gotten from Breadth. For Breadth is (to carry on the metaphor) a weaving, winding, wandering journey through the very heartlands of humanity. With Breadth you strive not to the frontiers and fringes of knowledge, but towards the center, the hub around which the great mental landscape revolves. This turns out to also be a difficult journey, though for different reasons, and is one that is arguably even more valuable than that of Depth.

Anyway, I’m writing this post to remind myself that, despite how difficult or trivial our journeys through academia might sometimes seem, it’s absolutely worthwhile for the discoveries that will be made, and for the people that we will become in the process.

I found myself at the event-of-the-school-year known as “Date My Friend” serendipitously. My friend invited me to Pub Night to celebrate Galentine’s Day. I expected to have a great convo about the perks of being single while we stuffed our faces with garlic knots and studied the upperclassmen as they sipped their college-provided beer. I didn’t expect to get an hour’s worth of entertainment that doubled as a psych-lover’s wet dream.

Roughly 100 people (who knows) crammed into one of the Dodd dining rooms to watch PowerPoints given by friends about friends and why they’d make a great girlfriend/boyfriend. Some big ticket items included height, intelligence (“5 classes every semester…crazy?…crazy smart!”), sexiness, kindness (as indicated by relationship status with mom), success as a child, pet preference, and other miscellaneous interests (gaming, nature, 🍑s) that could mean instant bonding..or deal breaking.

I wonder how many people actually get hit up on one of their myriad contact mediums that are flashed before us at the end for a split second (“LinkedIn…for business inquiries only”). I also wonder how many of the spectators are on the market or if they’re happily cuffed folks there for a laugh and a comforting “whew, thank god I’m not having to puff my chest and put on my best good-humored face as my friend shows off sides/snaps of myself to strangers.” Huge props to those who agreed to be auctioned off in this way and especially to those who stood to the side of their friend like a pig at the 4-H spring show, vulnerable to the eyes of bidders, fearful of what the next chapter will hold, yet fat with love for the country kid who helped them grow to be the quirky boar they are today.

I hope everyone can find love (or lust if you’re like my brother who thinks it takes two years for two people to truly love each other [red Wiki coloring]) at least once during their time at Williams. I’d like to know the success rate of “Date My Friend,” looking at metrics like the number of social media requests, DM slides, irl dates, hookups, and marriages that come out of it. In this world of conflicting advice about love, it seems to take on a modification of the “shoot your shot” approach: it’s a friend holding them up on their shoulders while they t-shirt cannon enough shirts for every fan in the stadium, hoping someone will like the color and try it on.