A University Inspiration

Our very own East Mall Fountain

Ninth grade signaled a new beginning. I was beginning high school and I didn’t know what that meant. I didn’t know where I was going or where I wanted to go. Being a freshman entails uncertainty. By the time I was a senior I had come close to the end of my high school route and was comfortable with it. Here I am at the University of Texas’ starting line and I’m, well, uncertain again.

Plan II is just the place for me. I don’t know which particular subjects draw me most, but I know that I love my love for whichever subjects those might be. I am a passionate explorer. I bring my curiosity to the University so that it may be formed. Standing on a ledge, I ask the University to guide my in my next steps. Is Plan II an adjective? My life is so Plan II. I think it works. I am undecided in my direction but decidedly decided in my wanders. So the University should be a sanctuary for my wondering and a guide for my journey.

A university should be inspiring. Students on campus should be in awe. When I get caught up in the daily grind I forget how awesome my circumstances are. When I am mired in my books I forget where I am. But then I’ll overhear an intriguing discussion or I’ll take a breath and step out onto the sun deck. And I will be awed. There is so much that has gone before me. There is so much that I don’t know. The knowledge of my professors is generally astounding and they’ll be the first to admit how much is beyond even them. Occasionally, I burst out laughing when I remember that nobody “seem[s] to know much of anything really” (Varnum 343G). I remember the Mystery. If you look, you can find it everywhere on campus.

I want to be inspired in a direction. A university should provide direction even if wandering is its pursuit or intellectual edification is, as Newman posits, an end in and of itself. Children who leave home are in search of many things and they should find support “to seek the truth” in “the spirit that nothing is impossible” (Speck 298). University life is never static but constantly fluctuating. Learning is a gradual process of "successive combinations converging, one and all, to the true centre" (Newman 311). It is Hegel's dialectic of progress culminating in a synthesis of intellect. The Oxford English Dictionary defines “genius” as “the tutelary god or attendant spirit allotted to every person at his birth, to govern his fortunes and determine his character.” Michael Meade speaks of learning as the process of leading out this unique genius from within. True education is not scripted; it is the development and cultivation of a genius already within each and every one of us. “Pouring… forth… the zeal of enthusiasm,” (Newman 314) a university has the power to provide true education.

A university should inspire with beauty. Elegant architecture is an outstanding feature of most premier institutions of higher education. On a hot day I avoid campus’ bald patches at all cost and seek the shade cast by sprawling live oaks. Trees save this campus. Beauty engenders wonder and respect. Though maybe not as grand as Newman’s companion would have liked, the University of Texas has “water, springs or wells, woods and pleasant fields… enough to invite students to stay and abide there” (Newman 316). The fountain on the East Mall revitalizes me Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays as I walk past it on the way to logic class. On the way back from the music building I pause and wonder at Martin Luther King Jr’s towering fortitude. Graceful live oaks, arching fountains, and the statues sanctify campus. Beauty makes a place feel protected. Standing securely in beauty helps you to “stand outside yourself and describe what you see” (Varnum 343G). A university should inspire the individual to expand beyond himself.

So I do know what I want from the next four years. I want to find beauty. I want to be inspired. I want to grow beyond that which I currently am. I want to wander, to live Plan IIly (that’s an adverb). I want my education to be made of these things as I enjoy the process of bearing forth my own inner genius.