Changes in Plans Can Be for the Best

By Aaron Kass

A little over two weeks have passed since I moved into my lavish basement on T street. Off campus for the first time, moving in for one last time, the last three years rushing through my mind like one of those new, high speed Amtrak trains. As the train passes, one thing in particular comes to mind. James Dean once said, “Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.” We may each have our plans for the perfect Georgetown experience, but in the end, we must take it all in stride.

Each student – freshmen, sophomore, junior and senior – has certain expectations for the upcoming school year. For some, the goal is to completely reinvent themselves, and be nothing like they were in high school or their first year at Georgetown. For others, the goal is to know `everyone’ on campus or become the rising superstar on one or more team, club or organization (see my freshman year for details). Still, for others, the goal may be to achieve a 4.0 GPA or become more involved in one’s faith. The list keeps on going. Should achieving these goals be the end of one’s Georgetown experience, however? To be honest, my answer used to be yes. For me, at least, moving away from this answer has been a monumentally slow process.

Sophomore year was about becoming a Resident Assistant during my junior year. I worked fervently on my application, trying to get the best possible recommendations, worrying about the interview and in the end . rejection.

The aftermath of this process . running for GUSA on a whim, winning and loving being a representative my junior year. ore importantly, I lived with three amazing roommates in Village A, all of whom I can now call my friends. I tried so hard to accomplish something, failed, and in the end came out happier.

Junior year I wanted to be president of the Philodemic Society, an organization very important to me. I spent the entire first semester worrying so much about the elections, worrying so much about what the rest of the members thought of me that it pretty much made for a horrendous time. Why I joined in the first place became lost in my mind, and as for lost, so was the election. Not only did I lose but I might have actually gotten fewer votes than all of the five other people also running for president.

The aftermath of this situation . taking a semester to just come to the debates and enjoy them again, having a better time in the Philodemic than in the entire past year. Now I’m the vice president, having a very enjoyable time working with the president who beat me, really happy for the first time in a while. y goal wasn’t accomplished, but something better took its place.

As this year begins, two goals are running through my mind . The first is law school, law school, law school. I took the LSATs, have the applications and have done the research. There’s even that one school that I would do anything to attend. Accomplishing the general goal of law school is important, but maybe taking a step back and not worrying so much about which one I attend would be advantageous. Hopefully, in a few years looking back, I’ll see my law school experience as enriching, but where specifically that occurs, well, that’s going to be fate more than anything else, as are all things in life.

My second goal is to have the memorable senior year. I want to be able to talk about it 10 years from now. Talking to my friend Elizabeth at The Tombs last night, the realizations that this cannot be accomplished by doing anything specific (i.e. going to all of Disorientation Week or the like), but will happen on its own, finally hit me. To leave this place with five people I’ll talk to for the rest of my life, looking back, would be the highest accomplishment. That end, forming true bonds with a few people one meets here, can’t be accomplished by planning. It just happens.

Aaron Kass is a senior in the School of Foreign Service.