Eye of the beholder
Student success can be judged by individual outlook
I’m not a very successful person.
This concept came to me the other
day when I thought about writing this
“graduation column.” I tried to think of
everything I had done at the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln and how it
stacked up.
The problem was that I hadn’t real
ly done a whole lot I was one of those
faceless people sitting on the left side
near the middle of a giant classroom,
or the guy with messy hair who sat in
the back comer of a small classroom
and said something that wasn’t very
profound every once in a while. (Pretty
profound, huh.)
In the mid-sized classroom, I was
the guy in the back who the teacher
needed to see after class, though when
she said, “Is Jason Hardy here?” she
just glanced right passed me, obvious
ly not recognizing who I was.
I wasn’t involved with ASUN nor
did I ever vote for anyone. In fact I
don’t even know what they do.
I went to a football game only once
and left in the middle of the second
quarter.
There was never a story about me
in the Daily Nebraskan, just a million
written by me. I never won any major
awards nor was I ever acknowledged
for my academic performance,
because it was pretty average.
I was never in any club or anything.
I never went to a fraternity party. Oil
wait, yeah I did. Halloween of ’96.
That was weird.
Still, I never tried climbing that
wall at the Campus rec, and I never
voted for or was nominated for home
coming king. I never went to a pep
rally. Did we even have pep rallies?
I was the middle ground, the por
tion of the student body that didn’t feel
like this school was one big, great
community but rather a collection of
small communities that coexist on one school
campus. It’s OK, because there are a
bunch of students at this school who
were just like me, who didnt care
that everyone didn’t know J
them, because the ones who Jr
did know them learned a /
lot
Sure, they don’t act
like me, and they
were probably more
active in some
aspects ot univer
sity life than I ,
was, but they J
were probably 4
less active in f
some aspects
as well.
Either way, {
the point is that n,
UNL is just a
school, it’s not
life. So to
speak of suc
cess in terms
of UNL
accomplish
ments is ridicu
lous.
Success is a |
relative term 1 ,
anyway. t
For me, sue- \
cess is being \ •
proud of myself %
and the things I’ve \
learned over the past '
five years here at
UNL and in the world
outsiae oi tnis campus.
I probably won’t get a
dream job any time soon;
in fact I’ll probably have to
wait tames alter graduation.
But it doesn’t matter because I ^
still think it was worth it to go to
here. I think I learned a lot.
For one thing, I learned that this
university has pretty inconsistent bath
V room facilities. Avery Hall is horri
ble, but Andrews Hall isn t hall
1, bad. The third-floor men’s
X room in the Nebraska Union
is nice and big, but the toi
let has a weird extender
seat that makes for
k some bad splash-back.
\ I learned that the
A parking problem
\ isn’t a problem if
you just pane in me
i Blockbuster Video
\ parking lot.
\ I learned that
\ it was fun living
in the dorms
freshman year,
and I actually
made friends
that I still keep in
I contact with,
I though they’ve
I all dropped out
[ of school,
f Oh, and I
apologize for the
urine-soaked ele
vator in Abel Hall
on the last weekend
of the spring semes
ter of’96.
f I also learned
‘ about dating. I learned
that girls don’t think
stories about urine
soaked elevators are cool,
but because I’ve been going
^ out with the same girl for the
''past five years, I just keep
^telling that story anyway.
I also learned that girls think the
band Clutch sucks, but I think it rules.
I learned that assigned readings
were more suggestions than actual
assignments and a lot of teachers real
ly don’t know what they’re talking
about. And some are not only bad
teachers but actually detrimental to the
learning process. Thanks, Terrence
Robinson.
I learned that for someone who is
lactose intolerant, a diet that consists
solely of macaroni and cheese and
Mountain Dew is not a very good idea.
I learned that there is a big difference
between people who drink Old Style as
a novelty and people who drink Old
Style because it’s Old Style. This led to
me learn that I really don’t like people
who drink Old Style as a novelty.
I learned that a lot of people at
UNL work very hard to be able to
afford to stay in school, and a lot of
people don’t work at all.
I learned that you never have to
stop drinking and concentrate on
school to graduate, you just have to be
able to function well with a hangover. I
learned that I don’t do that very well,
hence five years.
Obviously these aren’t the only
things I’ve learned over the past five
years.
My point is that going to college
doesn’t make you a success, it makes
you in debt. But it also makes you real
ize that, while a degree may get you a
job, it doesn’t get you an identity.
That you have to do for yourself,
and that’s what I learned over the past
five years - that I’m comfortable with
who I am. I’m proud to be that guy in
class who you don’t know, and some
day I’ll be a guy in the American work
force who you don’t know, and I’ll be
me, and you’ll be you, and everything
will be OK.
I’m going to be a big success.
“Never look a bounty hunter in the
eye.”-Clutch.
Jason Hardy is a graduating senior and a Daily Nebraskan staff writer.
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