Reflections on Campus Ecology

Oftentimes, when I talk with other people about the world we live in and the problems it faces, they agree with me but feel that there is nothing they can do to change it. "One person can't change the world," they say.

Now I finally have concrete proof that they are wrong. As I sat in class during our final session on Monday, I looked around and saw of roomful of thirty people, all of them students and teachers, who know that the world needs to change and who, if nothing else, will be an example to others of the little things that can be done that make a big difference.

The conversations that we have shared for the past three months will not stop now that we have left the classroom. There is not one of us who has not and will not continue to involve others in these conversations and the world will change because of that.

I didn't think of this when I wrote my list of ten things that I learned from this class, but I feel that this is by far the most important thing I have learned in a classroom: A conversation can change the world. Elise started this conversation and I would not hesitate to say that by doing so she has changed St. Olaf and the world. As I leave college and enter "the real world" I have great hope for the future because I know that by participating in this conversation, I have actually begun to change the world.

Thank you Elise and thank you Jim. Thank you for helping me find and love my places on earth. Thank you for teaching me to never lose hope. Thank you for teaching me to make mistakes but never mistake them for failure. Thank you for teaching me that teachers can be students and students can be teachers. Thank you for showing me that it is okay to hope and dream and imagine and love and that there are other people who feel the same way. And thank you for proving, once and for all, that one person can change the world. These are lessons I will never forget.