I love it when something happens which awakens us to a new appreciation of how blessed we are. I had that experience a couple of days ago when I was one of the faculty interviewers for a scholarship competition at Carthage. Just over 40 of our finest transfer applicants were part of a competition in which the college gives out two generous scholarships covering the cost of tuition. The applicants are judged by the strength of their past academic record, a lengthy essay, and an interview done with two members of the faculty. In the interview, the applicant is to be assessed on such things as intelligence, creativity, and articulateness. I always participate if I possibly can because it’s usually a fun and interesting way for me to do my civic duty.
However, nothing I’d ever heard in past interviews could prepare me for what I heard this time around. Over the course of two hours, I was privileged to meet and interview four different young people who each had stories of various kinds of heartache and struggle and courage. One person who was actually born in another country and who no longer lives with their parents, found themselves quite suddenly without a ride to Carthage for the scholarship event (their dad was going to give them a ride but cancelled out at the very last minute) and had to get there via bus, train and taxi. It was so inspiring to think of all this young person had to do to be sitting across the table from us for this interview. Another recounted a harrowing story of several very serious health issues with which they have contended, including a severe illness they contracted while on a student trip to another country- and a past accident leaving them in chronic pain. But in meeting this person you would never ever guess that they were bearing a burden like this, because they were so amazingly vibrant and joyous. Another of the students ended up telling us about growing up in a home with parents who were scarcely educated at all and who seemed to have almost no understanding of or appreciation for their child’s education or aspirations for success. The fourth student talked about contending with ADD and how they had managed to achieve some very impressive success despite this serious challenge.
I hope you’ve noted that I haven’t revealed the gender of any of these students or a word about where they’re from – or even the name of the faculty colleague with whom I did these interviews. I didn’t want to say too much about their stories but I could not resist the urge to say at least a little bit about how incredibly inspiring these interviews were for me. First of all, it was neat to meet young people who obviously cared about their education so deeply- and who had persevered in the face of some very tough challenges. But it also helped me realize that when I began college, I was almost ridiculously blessed- with almost no roadblocks standing in my way and all of the support that anyone could possibly want- and not even beginning to properly appreciate such blessing. I would hope that if there had been challenges in my way, I would have demonstrated even a portion of the guts and determination of the four young people I interviewed. But in the end, it’s nothing but a rhetorical question- and even for that fact, I need to be thankful.