Ask 'Who am I?' with purpose

In yesterday’s editorial, we touched on several different spaces for mental health issues on campus, emphasizing the importance of peer support and institutional readiness to assist. Today, we turn to a more general exploration of how students come into their own in their University careers.

College is no doubt an exhilarating time, but at some point or another, we are all faced with academic difficulties, social anxiety, identity confusion or any of the other conceivable causes for concern with which our age group grapples. Whether it is a competition of who has more work on a given day or fear of being alone, moments of crisis can be taken as disguised questions of purpose. Surviving them and then uncovering and answering these underlying questions requires us to do something we do not normally do: articulate a self-image.

Duke students supposedly have it made inside and outside the classroom. We succeeded in high school with enough flair and merit to earn a place at one of the top universities in the country. But as the standardized testing and high school organizations fade away, we turn frantically to start doing something, anything to stay busy. It can be scary if you do not already look like you know what you want to do but equally damaging if you acknowledge that fact and merely resign yourself to it as reality. What is important is that none of us are finished works, and nobody expects us to be, even upon graduation.

This point is easily extendable to our social, spiritual, cultural and other dimensions of self. In each, we are focused on finding and pursuing interests with our peers, but more time needs to be spent thinking about how we want to interact with the relevant communities on campus and with the world after Duke. We are awfully silent when it comes to this kind of explanation. If asked to explain why you enjoy your major or like to tutor with the Emily K Center or work on cases with the Consulting Club, oftentimes the initial answer would be without substance, describing the details of the work or the organization’s purpose.

In short, articulation is lacking. A push is needed to think of the Duke experience as a positive feedback cycle where the University’s offerings work to expand and prune students' interests that in turn bring into focus the person taking up those opportunities. Talking, sometimes literally, through this dynamic adds value to your experience in the same way a literature circle on Shakespeare provides far more knowledge than a solo read of his works would. In this way, you can come to set realistic goals and make intentional choices about who you are and what you like doing.

The questions asked today are ones that cut deep. This is because our Duke experience fundamentally transforms our identities, and that is a trauma of sorts for better or worse. Identity brings to mind classic spaces like gender and sexuality but also extends to all aspects of ourselves. No graduate leaves Duke looking anything like the 18-year-old who graduated high school four years earlier. The journey is full of frenetic pressures and myriad academic, social and other opportunities that push us to our limits. In order to make our time here as productive and meaningful as possible, we simply ask that students ask “Who am I, and why?” because occasional but regular introspection works to both smooth and illuminate the way forward.