May 16 was graduation day at Mount Mercy University. It’s part of the normal rhythm of university life—students, we hope, will move beyond their college experience and live a fulfilling post-graduation life.
It doesn’t always work that way—there are too many variables in personality, skills, luck, connections—but life never comes with certain guarantees. Yet, over the years I’ve seen MMU graduates do amazing things. I hope that the lessons students learn on The Hill prove useful to them. And college isn’t just about jobs or career—it’s a step to being an educated person, a better citizen, a more complete human.
As a professor, I’m neither the success guru nor the happiness fairy—and frankly, I have lived long enough and seen enough to believe that even if success is earned, it’s also capricious and sometimes elusive to the deserving and easy for the wrong people. We can gird our loins and dress for battle—make plans and prepare for the future—and yes, success does usually come to those who work hard for it. But as they say, in battle it’s not the bullet with your name on it you fear the most—it’s the one that says “to whom it may concern.”
Both good and bad fortune await—unforeseen circumstances, unexpected calls early on a random Tuesday morning, partings and losses or unexpected windfalls.
In this life, it does make sense to gain what knowledge and skills you can, to discern a path and to work diligently along that road to the destination you want. Yet it’s also true that the uprooting of a long-planted tree is only a derecho away. None can see all fates, least of all their own.
I think the wisdom of the wizard is useful to invoke. In “The Fellowship of the Ring,” when Frodo says that he wishes that Bilbo had killed Gollum when he had the chance, Gandalf replies: “Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. … Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”
Sure, I think success awaits most of those who work for it, and I hope all of our graduates have learned that lesson. But even the very wise cannot see all ends.
Anyway, while I am not an oracle and cannot foretell what lies ahead, there are three women in the class of 2021 that I worked with over time, who I will especially miss, and, I hope, will achieve great things. Not coincidentally, all three were active on the campus newspaper at Mount Mercy University, so they’ve heard countless hours of Joe as DJ playing Tom Petty or Taylor Swift or Tessa Violet, and yet they came back for more. They have dived into life in the deep end, and positioned themselves with loads of good karma, which is likely, knock on wood, to come back to them in many ways.
Let me briefly ruminate on the dynamic trio of Courtney Hoffman, Veronica Jons and Caroline Groesbeck.
Caroline left the newspaper staff in her final year, as she took on a full-time writing gig in the marketing office of the university. She finished her final year as a full-time professional employee and simultaneously as a student—in a pandemic year, no less.
Thus, I haven’t had the chance to be in contact with her as much in the past year but she is intelligent, funny and a good writer—a powerful combination that I hope will launch her into the kind of adult life she wants.
Veronica was the head student editor of the Mount Mercy Times for two years in a row—a long haul for what is usually a one-year gig.
She is an iconoclastic straight-shooter. With Veronica, you’ll usually find out what she thinks—and the world needs sharp-elbowed intellects who have the courage to state what they believe. That’s Veronica.
Then there is Courtney. An only child, Courtney felt, to be honest, a little like a lost Sheller daughter. Maybe that’s because she took an early class from my wife as a freshman, and as a result, our conversations sometimes took on a familial air. Courtney most tolerated my musical tastes—her parents apparently educated her in classics like Tom Petty, so the sounds of the newsroom weren’t alien to her ears.
Do all three have bright futures? Yes, I say. 99 percent guaranteed.
I guess this pandemic year still has me feeling like life’s path can be mysterious. Yet in my heart, I believe these three women will all do great things. They are poised to launch their post-college journey. I guess in Caroline’s case, she’s sort of leapfrogged into year two of her post-college journey one orbit of the nearest star sooner than is usual. Veronica has talked of law school. Courtney is trying to find a copy-editing role somewhere.
Good luck to them, although the way they work, they can subsist on a bit less luck than average—luck is partly, I’ll concede, a symptom of energy, attitude and persistence.
Courtney, Veronica and Caroline aren’t alone. There are Josh and Dennis and others leaving The Hill whom I will miss and whose future successes I anticipate.
Getting the ideal first job that you covet is nice, but honestly, knowing that the wise don’t see all ends and doing your best to both play and enjoy playing the unexpected hand that life will deal you is a key to any journey.
Congratulations class of 2021. You made it. It always feels a bit like the end of one life and the start of another, but I think in this year there is an even huger sense of relief in crossing that finish line.
The pandemic isn’t over yet, our hurting democracy is going to require attention and care if it is to be preserved, our polluted planet is undergoing an extinction event that must be reversed before we become the big dinos—it’s an uncertain and unsettled time. Success awaits many of you. Others will have a harder road. My hope is that most of you find the former experience rather than the later—but I hope the love of your fellow Mustangs will follow you and encourage you and help you deal with whatever twist, turns, bumps or viruses that may lie ahead.
God bless you and keep you. If your road is hard, so be it, go with hope and treat each day as a challenge you can meet—because the journey is the point. If, as I hope happens to most of you, the journey proves more fruitful because you win life’s lottery, be generous and share and don’t gloat.
“For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”
Life musings ... My name is Joe Sheller and I'm an Associate Professor at Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This blog is personal opinion and does not reflect the opinion of the university, its administration, staff or board. I love to garden and often find my mind wandering when I'm pondering weeds or flowers. This blog is a pretty random mix of those thoughts, some on gardening, many on life in general.
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