Throughout my four years at Boston University, I have often spoken of laying a foundation, not for myself, but for the university.
This is not to say nothing existed here, but to create a base for jumping off, to have a more holistic view of what was going on.
From time to time, I got distracted from this goal, and for that I am horribly sorry to you and to myself for having not spent as much time on this as I could have.
But now I feel prepared and obliged to share with you all some of what I have learned and give my deepest thanks to all of you for showing me what BU has to offer.
It was not always a guarantee that I would show up and spend four years roaming Commonwealth Avenue, but I can now say with the deepest sincerity that any other choice would have been a true disaster and shame.
The first thing I needed when I came to BU was the mortar for my house, which is clearly the support group of friends and advisers I found at BU. It is not just the friends you have from freshman year who go with you on Spring Break to Orlando, although without them I would have never made it to this point. It is also the mentors who I have asked every question of, who have spent countless hours with me when we all should have been studying.
It is through these interactions that I have witnessed true humanity — whether celebrating with your friends in Kenmore Square after the Boston Red Sox broke the Curse or experiencing the true sorrow and despair as the closest friends of fellow students gather to celebrate their memory.
A house is a shelter, and while I used my friends for shelter from time to time, if not for the plethora of student groups, activities and general livelihood on our campus, my house would have never become my home.
One thing I love about BU (which I’ve ironically heard more complaints about than I care to remember) is our lack of unifying tradition. I think one of BU’s strongest assets is that we each have our own niches, passions and desires. We don’t put everything we have into doing one thing every year; we put everything we have into doing everything every year. We have a hockey team whose every game is followed by thousands of fans. We have an annual Dance Marathon that is continually the largest fundraiser held by any BU student group. The India club presents a cultural show each semester and you are lucky to get tickets, both because the show is always amazing and also because it sells out so quickly that many students get turned away at the door.
The list goes on: Students also bring national debates on issues such as affirmative action and the Level 4 Biosafety Laboratory to our front doors. And it is a prize given to each of us to be able to say we were a part of it — much like the “prizes” we collect at CollegeFest every fall.
I take a look out into my house’s backyard and see the city of Boston — a city that thrives by the presence of 57 area colleges and yet still curses the 250,000 of us day in and day out. I could not imagine a more incredible relationship with this city.
This love-hate allows us to take advantage of a city where you would be hard-pressed to find someone your age without a fascinating story. Boston also gives you every opportunity to prove yourself. Never could I have imagined that I would be sitting at a conference table with Mayor Thomas Menino and former Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole, explaining to them why their new restrictions on college students are ill, thought out and then having that discussion lead to a policy change in Boston. Each year I have seen the city treat students with less respect and dignity, and our answer? Each year we go out with unprecedented numbers and complete tens of thousands of hours of community service. BU gives each of us the opportunity to tour landfills in Buenos Aires, to question one of the ministers of Shanghai as we sat in his conference room, to observe protests against religious intolerance in India: opportunities which seem entirely unreal (picture a Beanpot final without men’s hockey coach Jack Parker).
And as I sit on the BU Beach remembering my orientation, my Freshman FYSOP, my first campaign at BU and the funny looks you all gave me when I carried around that large pinwheel and all the late nights we spent writing papers making ourselves sick and the late nights we spent around town, which often had similar results — I still do not believe that it has been four years.
Boston University is the name I give to a place where I will always feel at home, because while at times we may have struggled, we share many bonds. Looking forward, I could not be more excited to see what the current students do with their remaining time here, as they stand on our shoulders and on those of us before us, and what all of you whom I have had the pleasure of meeting manage to do in the future. I wish to leave you with the words of a great member of our community, Howard Thurman: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
Jon Marker, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, is also a former Student Union president