Pride

God, am I glad that I have a philosophy class again. My GenEd Philosophy class brought me many, many insights into my own life, the lives of others, and the world we all live in...it also brought a surge of awesome blog posts. Two classes into my "Self and Society" class, I'm going back to that same place. I don't know what it is about philosophy, but it just makes me think in ways that I normally wouldn't. Which is kinda the point, I suppose.

Anyway. Today we talked about what you as an individual owe to your society. War generates societies, but these wars are often fueled by certain, conflicting ideals. These wars come specifically from these ideals and concepts. And we inherit our societies and ideals from those who came before us - namely, our ancestors. Our ancestors hand all of this down to us - but what exactly is "this?" And I think it's a way of life, a certain knowledge/intuition about how to live it. We're brought into this world be a certain group of people, whether it be a family, society, or ourselves, and we take what they have made us into the world. One of the quotes we talked about was that everyone "should wish to spend [themselves] in [the city's] service." Basically, live your life as a sacrifice to the city, to what made you you. So that's what we owe to society, or to the city. Who we are, what we have to bring to the table. And by dedicating ourselves to society or the city, we are repaying our end of the deal.

This got me thinking about Stonehill. I always talk about how good Stonehill has treated me personally, and I think that it has done the same for many of the people that pass through here. So what do we owe Stonehill? What do I owe Stonehill? What do any of us owe it? I think that it's a direct parallel - we owe Stonehill all that it has done for us, and the way we go about this is by devoting ourselves to Stonehill. By thinking outside the bottle. By spreading the word to end the word. By welcoming classes of freshmen, or by assisting residents with their experiences. By being a person that students can go to in times of faith, or lack thereof. By serving the community, and Stonehill in general. By redefining what it means to be a Skyhawk. By making everyone else realize how incredible this place is, and how much we love it.

This is what we owe Stonehill. To be as good to it as it has been to us. To make Stonehill as good as can be for everyone else. To take a real sense of pride in the community and home that we live in, and have the opportunity to be in for four years, and to spend that time serving what has made us who we are.