Be Stardust

I remember the words uttered by my high school class valedictorian at John Dewey High School in Brooklyn, NY in June of 2005. Faisal and I were somewhat close friends, always vying for time to construct ridiculous algorithms in our computer science courses between bouts with precursors to YouTube.

We cursed the strict course curriculums as uneventful and politically correct taboos; we cured in ourselves like amateur anthropologists the deviant human behavior that signed great smiles and roaring grins on our faces. Even today I remember more of the hilarious to the sickly video clips than I do programming principles and code. A New York City education clearly demonstrated its usefulness.

Regardless, when he stepped to the podium we all expected the same least provocative monologue thanking the teachers for fulfilling their duties and encouraging the graduates to look to the future to bring better promise. I'm not even entirely sure I understand my own rhetoric when I spew the bland and monotonous. The devils beside, I'll continue.

Instead, Faisal Khan stepped to the podium and truly captivated my attention - even of those around me whose musings of the day all included praise of Mr. Khan. To sum he charged that "It is not the grades that make the person."

Despite this I have still pushed myself to secure the highest grade constricted only by the necessary social interactions and all their symptoms particular to an undergraduate experience. While these may be obvious, I'll mention the bi-weekly alcoholist's consumptions, skirt chasing, and the "R&R" afternoons coupled with a sweet and hot sun.

I do wholeheartedly believe that my GPA is a reflection of my character; it is not because I believe in the system but rather I understand that it is a lingering effect of the conservative nature of society. We hold to the same standards and character evaluations of our fathers and grandfathers.

While boldly stepping forth with our inherent liberal nature, we always look back for approval noting our conservative expectations. We become a part of a system. We accept that grades, evaluations, all things subjective in their nature are something less personal and rather absolute.

It is an unfortunate reminiscence of our human nature, an ironic affront to President Barack Obama's "change", and probably unlikely to evolve in our lifetime.

However, I wish to recall my friend's words these four years later. It is not the grade that makes the person, but the effort exhumed to benefit others than themselves. It is a not a subjective measure of success or productivity, but a measure of dedication and selflessness.

Character is something buried within each of us - a soul empathetic or hateful.

We can become accustomed to what we have grown used to; ignoring our interests, taking careers from our internships, following the academic stepping stones to our PhD's within fields where we feel secure of our future regardless of their worth in the greater concept of society.

We can limit our contributions by our comfort or we can step outside of ourselves.

I challenge each of you to necessitate your lives, becoming something both dependable and unique. The greatest admiration for our society, our American heritage, is its infinite plurality.

Even though we continue to grapple with each other and this often erupts with vacuums of hate that seem to spew the guts of our broken system, we always prevail with a new sense of enlightenment.

Every spiteful, angry, or horrid moment of our collective human history has lessons to offer. Repetition only mirrors failure to be overcome with the next generation of sponge brains.

Republican, liberal, Christian, Atheist, Muslim, Radical, Lethargic, American, Iraqi - we all fall under the umbrella of humanity - our survival is not only dependent on our differentiation of our genetic contributions. Idealism prevails paralleled and coupled with evolution.

We are all equal contributors whose input is only defined by our collective worth. The faults of society are not singular entities strained from one mere person. Each individual makes a whole, each person incapable of acting on their own without ramifications outside their own life. Each life is dependent and accountable to the next. Reject apathy, complacency and conformity.

To echo the words of Jack London in the spirit of my own last words with the Albany Student Press: I would rather be stardust born upon a great cosmic flame than mere dirt of an idle rock, inert, and fucking boring.