n e w c h u r c h l i f e : j u ly / au g u s t 2 0 1 4
Four years later I get to say farewell. We
are proud of you and happy to see you set
forth, and also utterly sad to lose you. You
leave a gigantic hole in our hearts. So along
with everything that has been said about what
you have gained and what you will accomplish
and how you will grow, let me say something
about loss and leaving, and about a different
sort of transformation and recovery.
Your days of being a college student
are indeed over. You are leaving something
behind in order to move forward. You will lose things and leave things
throughout your life – it is the nature of being human and moving forward.
But don’t lose the opportunity to be enriched and refocused through apparent
loss and endings. When we lose something we have the blessing of knowing,
sometimes for the first time, how meaningful it is and how much we have been
shaped by it.
Sometimes when something disappears physically from our life, it
pervades our spirit and raises our standards and consciousness. We then have
the opportunity and the privilege to carry on that good influence through how
we live our lives.
Not everything was great about your education here. But the good stuff is
the best there is, and it will last a lifetime if you know how to keep planting it
wherever you go. Take the values, and the lessons learned, and your well-trained
minds, and your striving hearts, and plant those things in the communities
where you live, and the workplaces where you step up to make a difference.
Don’t waste energy trying to fit in, or trying to stand out. Just go calmly
about the business of stepping up, doing the right thing, practicing your values,
promoting the greater good. There will be plenty of opportunities. If you do
this, your Bryn Athyn College years, far from being lost or over, will become
increasingly valuable through time, because your education will take root in
you, and flower in your thoughts and loves, and bear fruit in your actions.
Your college experience isn’t for four years, it’s for a lifetime. And the good
you do out there, throughout your life, expands the boundaries and identity of
Bryn Athyn College. So be active citizens and alumni, and reach back to help
future generations of students do the same.
On behalf of the faculty, staff, and administration, fare