I was reminded of something important this past weekend, and I think it is worth sharing.
My parents served with a nonprofit organization that works with disadvantaged communities in the developing country of Papua New Guinea.
It was grueling, thankless work, but they served faithfully and selflessly for over 15 years. By the end of their time of service, there was no doubt that they had succeeded in their mission of changing the communities in which they worked.
They were able to see an end to child neglect, the oppression of women and a subsiding of the cruelness and violence that ?dominated the culture.
They were honored during an event this past weekend in our small hometown in northern Indiana. The event was largely focused on one particular thing — human relationships and how they can be changed for the better.
Those were there were challenged to never forget the limitless value of human relationships and how they alone are the secret to fulfillment and growth, both ?individually and collectively.
As I thought about that, I began to compare it to my time here at IU. I, like the rest of you, am here for one purpose – to get an education. Hopefully a good education, an education that will add value to my life and carry me where I need or want to go.
But maybe that education should do more than just prepare my mind. Maybe in order for my education to be complete it needs to prepare me to invest in people and not just my retirement account or my ?vocational skills.
Relationships are an interesting thing. We all have them, need them and want them. But for some reason, it seems like most people don’t have great ones.
Sure, most people have a group of people they hang out with, party with, etc.
But do they have relationships that add meaning and change their lives for the better? These relationships are hard and they take work. I know for myself it is easy to get bogged down with ?everything else going on.
I don’t want to be overly sentimental or romantic, but I truly believe that in the end we won’t be able to take much more out of this world than those who we have impacted for the better.
This world and this ?nation is not short on problems — we all know that. But what are we going to do to change that?
How are we going to rise to the hurdles of our generation? I would submit to you that the only answer lies in the wealth of human ?relationships.
Hopefully, while we are all going about our four years here, we do more than open a textbook.
I hope we all invest in others, build relationships and strive to create the change we want to see around us.
cgerst@indiana.edu
