Questions.

This single word ought to describe why you’re here at Iowa State. You’re curious about all the subjects and possibilities within your chosen field, or else you wouldn’t have picked it. Then there’s the insecurity stuff too: Are you in the right major? Will you get a job when you graduate? Is my boyfriend or girlfriend “The One?” What does your future hold?

Some of these things you’ll figure out. In the process of solving those questions you’ll produce new, probably more perplexing questions about your life. Some you’ll never answer. But what we all have in common is that we’re all at Iowa State to become the person who can answer the questions that arise in our lives, and conduct our lives accordingly.

University.

You probably think “university” refers to a school, like Iowa State, and you’d be at least partially right, obviously. But check out a dictionary that has word etymology in it, and you’ll discover that the meaning of the word, coming from the original Latin, has as much to do with a state of wholeness within one’s self. Whereas “the universe” refers to the whole of everything everywhere, a university can refer to the whole of a person.

We refer to schools like our own beloved and beautiful Iowa State as universities because it is here where we become the people we are going to be for the rest of our lives. Here, we become whole. We add to ourselves the elements that make up our eventual being: Our creativity, our reason, our body of knowledge which allows us to make good decisions as humans and as citizens of a great nation.

Gestalt.

Webster’s New World College Dictionary defines “gestalt” as “any of the integrated structures or patterns that make up all experience and have specific properties which can neither be derived from the elements of the whole nor considered as the sum of these elements.” In other words, the sum of something’s parts is sometimes greater than the individual parts themselves.

In human terms, raw knowledge, for example, is completely worthless without the wisdom, the creativity or passion to put it to use. A song is beautiful not because of the individual notes but because of the way they’re put together. Beardshear Hall and Catt Hall are gorgeous buildings not because the individual limestone blocks or red bricks are beautiful but because of the way the builders stacked them.

People are like that too.

This is my second time at Iowa State. Several years ago, I came here for electrical engineering. Like most engineers, I practically counted the days until I was out of here. Differential equations, while fairly easy to do, sucked, and I didn’t really care much about electromagnetic field theory. Like most students in general, I just wanted a cool job in a cool office that paid me lots of money. I just wanted to get the hell out of here and get on with my life.

In the years between then and my recent return, I have seen and done a great many things. From working retail, to serving my community and nation, I’ve had many experiences which have changed me and made me into who I am today, which I hope adds up to being pretty decent person. But knowing what I know now, I wish I’d taken more time when I was here before.

Robert Kennedy once said: “Long ago the Greeks defined happiness as the ‘exercise of vital powers along lines of excellence in a life affording them scope.’” If so, happiness is using your talents for good in a way living your life has shown you. That shouldn’t strike you as earth shattering news; indeed it’s common sense, even.

But pause for a moment and consider your position here, right now. Most of you I’d bet are eager to get out of here and get on with your life. For most of you, a college education is just something you have to get through, like high school. Most good jobs demand a bachelor’s degree, and all your life you’ve been told you need one.

So here you are.

Remember, though, it takes time to compose a symphony, and it took time to build Beardshear and Catt halls. Likewise, it will take time to compose and build you into a good and decent person. Slow down, don’t rush your journey. Allow the pieces of yourself you’ll find and create here to be formed and shaped perfectly and nestled solidly into the rest of the parts of your being.

What is built in haste will crumble quickly, too. Take time to ask the questions and answer them. Take time to explore new and challenging things. Take time to allow life to happen and sweep over you and through you, and change who you are to make you stronger and better.

If school takes you five years — or even six years — instead of four, that’s okay because that saying “you only live once” is wrong: You live each and every day, so make the most of it while you’re here.

Welcome back, Iowa State. It’s good to see you again.