It’s June 1, a week after Memorial Day, which means summer is upon us even though the summer solstice remains three weeks away. America’s favorite seasonal pastimes—baseball games, concert series, barbeques and lemonade stands—are already in full swing. Meanwhile, most Duke students are about to begin, if they have not done so already, their slates of illustrious summer activities.
For some, the warmer months entail curricular academic work, but for most, summertime comprises pursuits complementary to our studies. “What are you doing this summer?” is a question asked all across campus during the spring semester, sometimes as early as February or even January. What might commence as innocuous small-talk can tend to devolve into subtle, passive-aggressive credentialism. The silently unanimous Duke-approved answers to this question, though such approval is not limited just to Duke, are “this finance or consulting internship,” “that Duke Engage program,” “this research fellowship” or something else in that vein. If we don’t have one in the bag, we’re not being productive or building our resumes. We might be losing a step; we might be falling behind the curve.
But what curve, exactly?
All of the traditional summer undertakings are very nice—prestigious, educational and rewarding in their own rights—but they in themselves do not constitute an enriching summer. The work one does in ten or twelve weeks during a college summer is not lasting. But the impression it has on us should be. What we do matters far less than how we do it.
College, through its persistent encouragement of truth-seeking, ought to develop students intellectually, morally and spiritually. Together, these contribute to a flourishing life in service to ourselves and, more importantly, to others. Given that we learn both analytically—in the classroom and library—and experientially—through work in a lab, foreign country, firm or clinic—formative summers are indispensible to an education that nourishes the whole person. During the school year, the classroom opens us to the world; during the summer, the world becomes the classroom.
One cannot discern how to properly and morally “further the advancement of knowledge in service to society,” as our University calls us to do in its mission statement, until one is open to the self-discovery that intentional truth-seeking fosters. That is not to say that one must leave college with a fully developed sense of self or a comprehensively coherent worldview. In fact, to believe that one has achieved such a feat is probably more an indication of rashness than of scholarship or worldliness. Rather, college, through the intellectual, moral and spiritual formation it induces during both the school year and summertime, should illuminate a calling. It should provoke self-discovery in a way that will lead one to ask penetrating life questions that carve a unique path for flourishing, ultimately converging on self-transcendence in service to others.
For this reason, there is no curve to fall behind, no collection of supposed life credentials that one must have amassed by the time he or she is a sophomore or a junior or a 25-year old to deem him or herself successful. Nothing in life that we ever do can be reduced to an impersonal credential or a line on a resume. Everything we do matters because we, the very people who are doing things, and the people those things affect, whoever that might be, matter just by virtue of our and their being people. To view others and ourselves otherwise depersonalizes the human person.
Too often, I think we overlook that the beauty of the finance or consulting internship is not the possibility of entering one’s senior year with a six-figure job in the back pocket. Rather, the beauty is having the opportunity to look oneself in the mirror at the end of an impressive, 10-week, roughly 800-hour marathon and to ask oneself, “is this career my vocation? Is this where my interests genuinely lead me? Is this the best use of my talents?”, and then to answer those questions with unwavering honesty.
That process is edifying even if one finds oneself less certain after a summer experience than before it. Discerning who one wants to be must always precede knowing what it is that one should do to become that person.
The deep potential for growth-inducing introspection is what makes the summer and all of its endeavors a great moment of opportunity. When we seize this opportunity, we can strive to frame the means by which we will flourish personally and interpersonally for a lifetime; we can gain an insight as to how truth-seeking, whether in the humanities, sciences, the workplace or otherwise, informs that effort; and we can appreciate how our analytical and experiential education assists us in establishing a foundation upon which we can build a flourishing life.
William Rooney is a Trinity senior. His column will run bi-weekly in the fall.
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