Pettiness rules our world
By Elizabeth Turnbull
News Editor

This has been a semester of growth, or, rather, of growing pains. Sept. 11 shattered the innocence of our generation and gave us a harsh wake-up call to the real world.

Apart from the grand lessons of patriotism and a renewed appreciation for the freedom we hold so dear, each one of us is taking away something unique from the Sept. 11 attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.

Some are grateful that they have grown up in such a privileged society, free from the fears of an oppressive government. Others are thankful their families and loved ones are alive. Plenty don’t have that luxury, and are simply thankful for one more sunset in what is slowly becoming a new routine of learning to live with loss.

Using the magic letter, I can tell you that it, in addition to the above, has shown me how self-centered and petty I can be at times (of course, using that logic, some would say it’s only fitting that my interpretation applies to me on a very personal basis!)

In addition to the terrorist attacks and the war in Afghanistan, I have a very close friend whose mother has recently fallen seriously ill to cancer. He spent his Thanksgiving break not around an elegantly set dining room table, but around a white hospital bed – with his mom.

Again, the almost overwhelming feeling overtook the ever-powerful I. How petty can I be?

Suddenly, it doesn’t seem so important whether or not Boy A thinks I’m cute, or that Boy B has “commitment issues.” It doesn’t matter terribly much whether it’s him or me that’s blocking a “potential relationship.” The B- on my English paper or the 160 pages of reading doesn’t seem all that daunting anymore.

What I (there’s that word again) do find daunting, however, is how easily petty events and details soon become obsessions – ruling every thought, every action. Turning me into someone I don’t know very well.

Then I get an e-mail. “They found more cancer and my mother is in the hospital. Please pray for her.” Strangely enough, my latest crush or paper assignment are no longer world-altering, all-important events. But you just try telling that to I.

Even as I type this, it strikes me as more than a bit ironic that I’m sitting here telling others how these experiences have affected me. I’m not talking about what Sept. 11 did to the nation or about how his mother’s illness is going to alter my friend’s life. Just goes to show how deep I runs.

In any case though, it is a slow and arduous process, growing pains put life in perspective, for all of us.

In the grand scheme of things, I doesn’t matter as much as another letter a little further down in the alphabet – if we stopped with the I’s, maybe we could start to think about the U’s and begin to make a difference. Only then will I actually mean anything important, because it will have ceased to be an issue.

Blessings are abundant and needs are too. Let’s end with I by beginning with you.