As students, we often get caught up in our daily lives on campus, consumed by the mostly trivial problems that surround us. For this reason, we at The Bucknellian feel compelled to congratulate and learn from the actions of one of this year’s People of the Year, Christina Cody ’12.
Cody’s actions this year have truly broken the mold of what we expect from a student of this University. Few would argue against the fact that, in general, students exude apathy in situations like this. When it comes to making serious change on campus, specifically in the way students think, not many students would go as far as Cody did to accomplish her goals.
We often hear the terms “first-world problems,” as well as “the Bucknell Bubble,” and these two concepts delineate one of the largest problems on our campus: students are just not connected to real life. Often all that matters is fitting in and being cool.
We only pay attention to these “problems,” when really we should be focusing on the type of issues Cody is addressing.
Why do we do this? Maybe because we are so busy that we don’t take the time to stop and think, maybe we just don’t think that we can make a difference in the campus’ culture, or maybe it is something completely different.
Whatever the reason, we must take notice of extraordinary students like Cody, who not only addressed a problem on campus, but also took action to create serious awareness. We must realize that we can make a difference.
With that said, talking about promoting change is easy–-taking action is very hard. How do we make the jump from idea to action? There is no correct answer to this question, no guaranteed way to ensure change.
A great start, though, is for we as students to slow down and think about what is actually meaningful in life. We need to take some time for ourselves, to sit back, relax and forget about frat parties and Lilly Pulitzer. If we can at least start with a change in our own individual mindset, we will have the opportunity to change the broader campus culture.
So, as the school year winds down and we prepare to go home for summer, we all should take some time to think about how we want the University to be when we come back in the fall. And while we think about this, we must never lose sight of who really has the power to enact change: we do.