Written by Gabby Justice
Every year, Defiance College holds a convocation to welcome incoming freshman. This year, Wes Moore, author of The Other Wes Moore, came to speak at this event. In Mr. Wes Moore’s speech about his book, I received a ‘life lesson,’ so to speak. Mr. Moore talked about all of the ‘others’ in the world. He spoke about those who are different from us. Those who are from a different country, who may speak a different language, or may have a different skin color. I had never really thought of people as ‘others’ until he said this. It made sense how we see the differences and the barriers in ‘others,’ but may never do anything about it.
Mr. Moore took his speech about the ‘others’ and turned it into speaking about our degrees and what we study in school. He talked about how when he was in college, it felt like the most important question he would ever be asked in life is “What are you studying in school Wes?” Trust me, I can relate. I’m sure every college student can. Mr. Moore said he later found out that this was not in fact the most important question. The question to ask is “What will you do with your degree? Will you make it mean something to someone other than yourself?” For me, this was one of the most profound questions I had ever been asked. I had never thought of it that way.
It almost seems mandatory to go to college these days. It’s simply what you do. Of course I have ambitions and I plan to do something with my degree, but Mr. Moore was right. What does my degree mean if I can’t make a difference to someone else? It’s really just a piece of paper to hang on the wall at that point. I hope everyone really heard and understood what Mr. Moore said about that. We should not get a degree in whatever major because it’s what we’re ‘supposed’ to do. It should be something that makes a difference to us as well as the ‘others.’