"Don't Just
Don't just learn, experience.
Don't just read, absorb.
Don't just change, transform.
Don't just relate, advocate.
Don't just promise, prove.
Don't just criticize, encourage.
Don't just think, ponder.
Don't just take, give.
Don't just see, feel.
Don’t just dream, do.
Don't just hear, listen.
Don't just talk, act.
Don't just tell, show.
Don't just exist, live.
― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
“Cherish your visions. Cherish your ideals. Cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts. For out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environments, if you remain true to them, your world will at last be built.”
― James Allen, As a Man Thinketh
Chapters are closing and pages are turning. For some, this season of change is easy to look at with hope and expectancy. For others, especially graduating seniors such as myself, it feels a little like someone is throwing us into the ocean without a compass or floaties, only our diplomas. What can we do with a piece of paper? How do we actually change the world? Can we even do it? The veil is being torn in our nation to reveal injustices that need to be advocated for, but are we qualified enough to actuate sustainable change?
These are heavy questions and almost indefinitely will remain unanswered without hope. We need it so desperately, and not just now. We’ve always needed to cling to hope. I think that today, we’re just realizing how empty we are without it. I was able to interview one of my good friends who is also a graduating senior here at Arts & Lectures, Mitra Djabbari. I asked her for one of her most valuable takeaways from her four years at UCSB and she said, “doing my best to live presently and not worry too much about the future. Stressing about something that is out of your control doesn’t change the outcome - might as well enjoy the ride.” In so many ways, this is one of the most mature perspectives to have in a world that has the capacity to be so painful yet also so beautiful and life-giving. It isn’t about letting our circumstances define us, but allowing ourselves to move forward like realists; in the direction of hope and gratitude - living with open hands, ready to give and receive.
Now, back to the question of “can we actually change the world?”. Mitra says, “I hope that I can influence the world! I am an empath who really cares about others and my relationships with people. I hope that by putting out positive and good energy into the world, it will have a domino effect and influence others to do the same with those around them.” I also had to realize we aren’t being thrown into a big scary world with a piece of paper - we’re being placed strategically into a society that’s been desperately waiting for us to stand in as advocates, defenders, and protectors. We are meant to spread and fight for love in a world, where true love, in all its glory, has been deficient. It isn’t our degrees that qualify us, it is our heart posture hungry to see equality and justice. It is our visionary mindsets creating ideas that change others’ minds and shake the foundations of iniquity. It is our eyes that see the holes and gaps - and we won’t wait for anyone else to fix them or fill them. We are a generation that has hope poured into us and all over us. We are the generation that will not turn a blind eye. We are the generation that is ready to reach out our hands and restore what has long been broken and crying. We’re more than qualified, we’re willing.
“And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good.”
― John Steinbeck, East of Eden
Original Artwork by Krysta Bass