It's 2007 and with the new year comes new resolutions. For the next week or two, we'll be calling old friends, keeping our rooms clean and packing Pottruck. For Penn, however, 2007 is just another year with no special resolutions to speak of.
Last January (the 17th, to be exact) marked the 300th birthday of Ben Franklin. boy oh boy.that was exciting. I could barely contain my enthusiasm while avoiding reading his biography for NSO. But in all seriousness, it is pretty sweet that Benjamin Franklin founded Penn. Therefore, I am proposing a New Year's resolution to pay tribute to good old Ben on a regular basis, and what better way to do so than to follow some of our wise founder's advice. Honestly, he'll be 301 years old tomorrow so he knows his stuff.
Throughout his life, Ben learned much, but I've done you the courtesy of filtering through his many insights from Poor Richards Almanack and selecting the three most important and applicable to our time here at Penn.
First, "A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one." Now that is a comfort, isn't it? Great, another old guy is telling us to hit the books - but then again, this old guy did invent the lightening rod and help write the Declaration of Independence, so maybe we should listen up. This means we should probably spend some time at that big building behind the button, the one with all the windows.
Granted, we worked pretty hard to get into this school, but that doesn't mean that we're done learning. Just because you got a perfect score on your SAT doesn't mean you don't have to attend class and it does not mean that you should talk more than the professor when you do show up. And for those of you whose hand shoots up faster than Old Faithful every time a professor poses a question, Ben also says, "Well done is better than well said." So our first lesson from Ben is to study because we're a bunch of blockheads and, as much as some of us would like to think so, we don't know everything.
Our second tidbit of wisdom is that "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." Need I say more? No, not really, but I will anyway. I feel this advice is of utmost importance. Relax and have a beer, Penn students of a legal drinking age (yes, that includes you, and especially you, MBAs)! Take a load off, and if your RA or roommate should happen to wander into your room and find that your eyes are glazed over and you're slurring your speech, calmly explain to him or her that you're only venerating our founder, Benjamin Franklin.
What's the worst that could happen if you guzzle a Guinness, bong a Bud or pound a Pabst? You might actually let your guard down and have a little fun between organic chemistry and quantum physics. It won't be so bad, I promise. To sum up our second lesson, don't take yourself so seriously - it's okay to get a little wasted once in a while. It's fun. Oh yeah, and don't pee on his statue; he's not the one giving you three midterms, he just wants you to have a good time.
Our final lesson from good old Ben is about time. College is a unique time in our lives. It's that interlude between the happy ignorance and innocence of childhood and adult responsibility and maturity. We can both attend discussions with the business, political and scientific leaders of our time and get drunk on a Tuesday night without being called a social delinquent.
We've got the best of both worlds. We're young, passionate, ambitious, and surrounded by young men and women who are equally so. However, this exciting time will not last forever. As Ben tells us, "You may delay, but Time will not." Don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today. Ben also says that "There will be sleeping enough in the grave," so while we can, we should go out, dance, sing, learn, experience, and "Love, and be loved".
Our time at Penn is fleeting. Enjoy it while you can, because before you know it, you'll be handed your diploma - whether you like it or not. Let's make this year one to remember and heed the words of our founder: "Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of."
Emily Garrett is a College sophomore from Waukon, Iowa. Carpe Di-Em appears on Tuesdays. Her e-mail address is garrett@dailypennsylvanian.com.
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