The Bowdoin Orient

April 13, 2001
Volume CXXXII, Number 21

Nearing the end and reflecting, part one

by BEN GOTT - COLUMNIST

   As I sit at my iBook, trying to ponder the subjects of my last few columns, I am reminded of the old adage that is often applied to the business world: "It's not what you know, but who you know." While I have always assumed this concise little saying to be true for investment bankers and politicians, I have recently been finding it to be true in relation to my own experience here at Bowdoin. It's not what I know, but who I know.
   I find it slightly ironic that, after shelling out $120,000 to attend this elite liberal arts institution, the most important thing that I have gained from Bowdoin is not my education but my friends. Now don't get me wrong: the education I have received at Bowdoin has been top-notch. I have learned things about the world around me that have forever changed the way I look at it, often in ways that I cannot express. However, I will not remember my most important relationships at Bowdoin as being with my textbooks, but as being with those around me.
   I have been reminded of the importance of these relationships lately through the work I have been doing as a student teacher. In the past fourteen weeks, I have made many, many friends at the Richmond Middle School. Faculty, staff, and students have all had a profound effect on my life and on my perception myself and those around me. For me, this real-world experience has been my most important "classroom time" at Bowdoin, even though I have spent none of it in an actual Bowdoin classroom. The reason that I will be sad to leave Richmond in two weeks, however, is not because I miss the grading, the tests, or the preparation. Rather, I will miss the people I met there, and the people who I am certain will remain friends for many years to come.
   The same is true with many of the friendships I have made at Bowdoin. Whether these friends be fellow students, staff members, or professors, I have formed bonds that I imagine will last a long time. I have gotten to know the families of many of my professors, a very positive and enriching experience for me. I have gotten to know professors both inside of class and during office hours, at the Café, or just in my wanderings around campus. I have gotten to know fellow seniors, juniors, sophomores, and firstyears in dorms, classrooms, activities, and clubs. It is my firm belief that the more people I meet, the better.
   This is not to say that I value all of my friendships the same, nor is it to say that I consider one friendship to be "better" than another simply because I feel closer to one person than I do to another. No, the friends that I have made during my time at Bowdoin will always be important to me because they offered their support, told a joke, lent an ear, or helped me out in a tough situation. Every friend that I have made here has added something important to my life and I am a better person for it.
   So, members of the senior class: as we wind down this semester and prepare to head out into the world, let's try to remember our friendships and how important they are to so many of us. It's time, as Robert Frost would say, to mend walls; to tell those around you (as Oprah-ish as this might sound) that you care about them. Perhaps it was 80s mopester Morrissey who put it best, and so Simply: "Hold onto you friends."