It has been a couple of months since we have been a part of eNews, but we are thankful for the opportunity to return one more time before the end of our collegiate careers.
It is strange for both of us to think about the realities that will be facing us May 24 when we leave PLU and embark on our professional journeys in the real world. As we stroll around campus, the last couple of weeks, we have had weird flashbacks to whipped cream fights in Ordal Hall, late nights in the library and great rounds of Frisbee on Foss Field. It seems impossible that four years have gone this quickly. PLU has been such an integral part of the last four years, that to not imagine it as the focus for the next four seems impossible.
However, we recognize that the natural cadence of life requires that we leave PLU and so we do so with a sense of gratitude for the lessons we have learned, the experiences we have had and the relationship with this institution that is yet to come.
So, in an effort to communicate what PLU has meant to us, we’ve compiled our list of top three things we have learned at PLU.
Andy: 1. Awareness of my perspective and a thoughtful analysis of other perspectives are essential approaches to any situation or information that I encounter in my life.
2. Even though there are many different lifestyles around the world, I have found a connection with each person I have met across the world in the miracle of being a fellow human being.
3. I have become aware that my lifestyle is out of touch with the resources required to sustain it and I must be more aware of how the choices I make affect the environment and other people around the world. Now, the challenge for me is to help my awareness sync with the values I hope to uphold.
Maren: 1. People are the root of life and building a community around oneself is the most vital and challenging goal everyone faces in life.
2. Life is driven by the question that one poses each day for it is the questions, not the answers, which we live for and which propel us forward.
3. Greeting each day with an attitude of gratitude helps us see life as a gift and something to be cherished. As a college graduate in the United States, I have much to be thankful for in this day.
Thank you for your readership this year. In the fall, we will both be headed on to graduate programs. Andy has been granted a teaching assistantship at the University of Colorado, Boulder for applied Mathematics. Maren will be staying closer to PLU at the University of Washington, Seattle with a research assistantship for her Ph.D. in Scandinavian Studies.
PLU has been transformative and we will forever be grateful for the education we’ve experienced. We have been forever changed and graduation Sunday (May 24) will be sad and joyous; happy that we’ve succeeded and sad to leave this place we have called home for four phenomenal years.
