by Diana Crandall
Dear Cap Fam,
I want to begin this by congratulating the Class of 2014: my classmates, my friends, and my family. I began this journey alongside you four short years ago. I can still hear the purple and white clappers, clicking us through the gate, this was going to be the best four years of our lives.
I remember talking to people that first week and already time has escaped us to a new chapter of our lives. We made it. Through our struggles – there were plenty – and our unbelievable triumphs. We have left our mark on our university, some of us suffering through profound sadness, leaving the campus just a little brighter than before.
I want to tell you that these weren’t the best four years of your life. You are among some of the most talented, articulate, passionate, hilarious, and devoted people. These years were just the foundation that you will build your life upon. For most of us, every path we take, every job opportunity we seek, and every hurdle we eclipse stems from here: our beginning, at Capital University.
You will go on to lead, build empires, argue justice, seek truth, create, and change the world. We have been handed every tool we need, and it is time for us to go out and apply them. Most thanks goes to the brilliant minds, accomplished scholars, and passionate faculty we were taught by.
That leads me to the final component of this farewell. To you, the professors. For every student hiding their cell phone beneath their desk, there is another diligently copying your words. For every student who skips, there are two more who keep the discussion going for hours after class. For every late-comer, maybe-still-drunk student who sits in the back of the room with their eyes half-closed, I promise there are five more listening, learning, changing the way they think simply because of the message, the argument, and the passion you bring into the room. I have seen them when the projector is shut down, when the buildings lock and you leave campus for the night.
Your students are sprawled on the floor at 2 a.m., highlighting, reading, listening to music, talking with friends. The number of political, philosophical, ethical and moral debates I’ve listened to over a beer on a Friday night are countless. I want you to know we listened. We learned, we found our passion, we changed majors eight times, and you were there the entire way. You sat patiently while we cried in your office because we had a quarter life crisis halfway through junior year. You let it slide that we emailed you that we were sick and then saw us sitting at the fountains an hour later.
You have bent over backwards for us. I want you to know that having you as faculty members was an absolute privilege. You have changed the lives of almost everyone I have interacted within the past four years. You changed my life. There will never be a column long enough, or a sentence I could string together, that could adequately express my gratitude and thanks.
So live on, Cap Fam, and do well in whatever your next endeavor may be. I could keep throwing out adjectives – witty, bright, wonderful – but actions speak louder than words, and I know the Class of 2014 has only just begun to show the world what we can do.
All of my love,
dcrandall@capital.edu
