CLASS OF 2014 Graduate Essay
“
we learned… the urgency for change, the endurance of commitment, and the audacity of action and social activism.
”
What’s So Right about Being Wrong
(once in a while)
by Benjamin Levine ’14
I
didn’t get to Pitzer College alone—none of us did. My dad and sister helped move me in. I remember the orange-clad upperclassmen clapping and cheering while I dragged my luggage up the stairs of my first-year dorm. My new home was on the second floor of Pitzer Hall, nestled in between the residence director’s office and the garbage room. Wow, I thought, I’m not going to be able to get away with anything. The only other thing I remember from move-in day was the scorching heat, which was the source of some personal discomfort and my first disagreement with my new roommate. He, being from Southern California, suggested turning off the room’s air conditioning and opening the window because temperatures dropped quickly in the late afternoon, while I, the stubborn New Englander, wanted the AC cranked and all doors, vents and windows closed— sustainability be damned. Well, after four years of familiarizing myself with the weather here, I am finally ready to admit that temperatures do, in fact, drop quickly at night. That was just the start of me learning by being proven wrong at Pitzer. ■■■
In the capstone to my major, the Senior Seminar in Economics, Professor Linus Yamane gave a lecture about life after Pitzer. I think he could feel the collective anxiety in the room so he ended with a quote by
the playwright William Saroyan. “Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep, really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell, and when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.” Saroyan’s quote highlights perhaps my biggest misconception about college, and its most valuable lesson. Like many of my classmates, I came here thinking I was going to learn everything in my chosen field, as well as philosophy, sociology, biology, political science, art and environmental analysis. But, once again, Pitzer proved me wrong. Yes, I learned economics, and all my classmates learned their disciplines. But what we learned collectively as part of the Pitzer experience was the urgency for change, the endurance of commitment, and the audacity of action and social activism. We learned how to live, and what we take with us is insight and a passion for improving the lives of others. If we seize our postgraduate lives with the same noble intent, idealistic passion and thoughtful pragmatism, we will leave this Earth in better shape than we found it. I will be wrong again, but in this, I am sure. Benjamin Levine ’14 was awarded a 2014–15 Fulbright Fellowship to teach English in Indonesia. Last year, he found a nice cave in Joshua Tree National Park and is looking forward to returning to it after his Fulbright year.