It doesn't take a class, it takes a culture

It has been a good while since I've posted. I've learned that doing short blogs more often is the key to success.

So let me tell you: this have been my favorite semester so far at Vanderbilt. I think its because I'm trying to experience every last thing I can while I'm here.

One of those things was working for a political campaign. I just got done interning at Barack Obama's TN Headquarters. It was an experience only advertised to Vanderbilt students. I have never experienced so much of Nashville, politics, grassroots activism, belief in a cause, excitement, Tennessee, everything. Awesome.

Now, the reason I posted was that I wanted to tell you the most important things I have learned at Vanderbilt. They are values instilled in me because of my life here. Some of them I got from class, most of them from just being here:

1) Maintain your principles in every situation, every fight. There will always be adversity in everything you do, whether finding a group of friends or running for office; however, the people that stay grounded in these kinds of situations go the farthest in life, even if they suffer short-term setbacks because of it.

2) Somewhat related: Success is a delicate blend of idealism and practicality. For instance, say you advocate gender equality issues and you're in need of help to develop a program on campus. What if the person you need to work with to develop this program is derogatory toward women, a womanizer, and everything you're working against? While this could be presented as a moral problem it's not. You either don't work with that person, effectively cutting off your program or you embrace them to achieve your end-goal. The latter is a good balance between keeping your principles and practicality.

3) Everything has an effect. And you often won't know what that effect is and how important it will become. For a lot of people, health is a big example of this. Many of the things we do now build up for later in life when it's too late to take back a long-trend of habits. Whether your poison is candy, soft drinks, or alcohol, it all builds up over time against you.

4) Never, ever, ever make a decision out of pride. Pride is extremely deadly. Pride is blinding. While it has a small effect now, it is a habit that destroys people later in life. Look at any public figure that has been outted in a scandal, ruined a business, or hurt their family. Half of the time, pride was the hidden motivation. Plus, if you're not making a decision out of pride, then you're likely considering how it affects other people - never a bad thing.

That's it for now. Some of these are poorly articulated, but I tried. Overall, I'm just trying to stress how important it is that we evaluate everything that we do, that we think about our choices. Morals, ethics, principles - they are important, despite what you hear. There are some very gray situations out there, situations that get even grayer the older you get. It takes some grounding to wade through them.

By the way, I'm up late and I love it. I'm living in a suite with a guy that lived directly across from me in Hemingway Hall freshman year. We instantly hit it off and have lived with each other for 3 of the last 4 years. We've stayed up late so many nights. Half of that time was spent avoiding work by taking trips to the varsity market, playing video games, or whatever else you can think of. Good, solid times.

So much for short posts.