April 16, 2020
By Ariane Cortés, University of Florida
Good evening everyone,
Firstly, I would like to thank Dr. Watt for that inspiring Charge and Dr. Fischler for the opportunity to deliver this Response to it tonight.
As I know is the case for many of you in the room, graduation is no longer looming far off in the distance, but rather a quickly approaching reality– and with that comes immense pressure.
A pressure to find our first job, to get accepted into graduate school, to secure that next step, but even more frighteningly– pressure to know our end goal, to envision the destination of our academic journey, and how we plan to put our knowledge to use.
Some of you may be fortunate in this sense, envisioning yourself in your ideal career since middle school, always with your eyes on the prize and your spirits high throughout the course of your undergraduate degree.
For you, graduation is just one step closer to reaching that goal and to seeing that vision come true.
However, if you are like me, passionate about your studies but uncertain of how you wish to one day apply them, then graduation makes you feel that time is running out, the pressure is on, and choices must be made in spite of your overwhelming uncertainty.
It is precisely this uncertainty that gives way to the– IF.
What if I get that job, what if I don’t? What if I wait a year before starting law school? What if I use that time to pursue something else I am passionate about? What if I end up in a place I never expected ten years from now?
All of these questions often circle in our minds, and with them, too, circles the word – IF.
For so long I have fallen victim to the word – IF– to the way it consumes you as you sit there contemplating all of the possibilities that lay ahead.
It wasn’t until I had the pleasure of taking Dr. Watt’s Italian Literature class this semester that I realized, how much time I have truly wasted debating what could be, rather than making things happen for myself.
The number of times I used the word IF when discussing my plans for next year began to rival the word LIKE – which if any of you share the same horrible habit of mindlessly using it in conversation, you know how difficult it is to omit once you begin… It’s ~like~ hard to explain, but maybe some of you can ~like~ relate to what I’m saying.
But you see, the time we waste in using these same two words is precious time that could be spent elsewhere. I mean, why spend so much time dwelling on our own uncertainty when we could be using it to find clarity?
I think Francesco Petrarcha, or Petrarch, as you may know him, is a prime example of someone who dwells on the IF.
So, as a tribute to Dr. Watt’s class, I must quote a snippet from Day 25 of Petrarch’s Canzionere titled “Amor piangeva, et io con lui t’avolta”
He writes…
IF in returning to the loving path,
you found hills and ditches in your way
enough to almost make you turn back,
it was to show how thorny is the road,
and how mountainous and hard the climb,
IF a man would find where true worth lies.
As in the sonnet, what ensues following the word IF is the potential for further setbacks, trials, and challenges to realizing where true worth lies.
Petrarch, let the IF consume him. Obsessed with becoming a poet laureate, he wrote a poem for every day of the year, beautifully obsessing over questions of “If only I could have it” or “What if this happened.” In many ways, this drove him mad– and also caused him to shed a concerning amount of tears for a grown man…
But what I have realized this semester, both through Dr. Watt’s class and Petrarch is that the worth lies in moving forward, in using our agency to seek out new opportunities, and not remaining contingent upon things that are out of our control.
Because when we are not dependent upon the IF, nor trapped by that paralyzing contemplation over what could be, we find new inspiration in the very same place of our doubt.
By relinquishing the IF, and replacing it with WHEN we may find new narratives to the same questions we asked ourselves before.
For example:
When I hear back about that job, I will be relieved that it is an offer because my hard work has paid off, but when I am not given a position, then I know it wasn’t the right place for me.
When I wait a year before going to law school and spend a year teaching English abroad, I will pursue something I’m passionate about, gaining invaluable experience.
Then, WHEN I do attend law school, I will feel all the more fulfilled and ready to take on that next chapter of my life.
And when I look back at my life 10 years from now and realize I am not at all where I imagined I would be as an undergraduate student, I laugh and know that I am exactly where I am supposed to be.
And, to me, there is even greater comfort in this narrative– because by eliminating the IF I am forced to confront the “when” and “how” making me all the more prepared for my next step, for the goal I’m supposed to reach.
However, in this discussion of where we are supposed to be, I would like to highlight that tonight, everyone in this room is supposed to be here.
By virtue of our hard work and dedication to our academic endeavors, everyone in this room has earned the recognition of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and the honor of membership within it.
For when we remain committed to our intellectual pursuits and have the courage to believe that it is not a matter of if we achieve, but when we do, others take notice.
Tonight marks the formal recognition of our place in a community of scholars who understand the dangers of mere speculation and are committed to the realization of their goals.
If there is one thing I will take away from tonight, it is that while we may not be able to control – IF – something happens to us, we can follow in the footsteps of those who came before us, remaining committed to our love of learning, and remembering that where one road ends, another begins…
And with that, let tonight mark both an instance of “when we work hard we will achieve” but also let tonight be a new beginning for us all in this most prestigious organization. Thank you.