As exams approach, students across campus (and especially my fellow law students at Weldon) are beginning to shift into ‘Finals mode’. While things may seem eerily calm at the moment, two weeks from now we’ll be desperately cramming as much information into our brains as the semester’s dwindling hours permit.
For most of us, this means repeating the ancient campus ritual of late nights, anxiety, caffeine, and poor eating habits. We do this to the point where we place our physical and mental health in jeopardy.
Consequently, the period of the school year that should showcase the best of what we’ve accomplished over the preceding semester instead turns into a fatigue-addled pageant of us at our very worst. In the scramble for grades, we lose track of the bigger picture—the fact that our time here isn’t about individual recognition, but about learning valuable skills that will help us do our part to build stronger communities and a more prosperous society.
At Weldon, we love any excuse to trumpet our strong tradition of public service. A quick look through our national political ranks reveals scores of Schulich law grads (and even some big names who attended but didn’t finish the program).
Prime Ministers R.B. Bennett, Joe Clark, and Brian Mulroney have walked our halls (we would have had Robert Borden too, but he was called to the Nova Scotia Bar five years before the school opened).
We’ve graduated Nova Scotian Premiers Angus L. MacDonald, Robert Stanfield, G.I Smith, Gerald Regan, John Buchanan, Russell MacClellan, and Darrell Dexter.
A very incomplete list of other political names you might recognize includes Green Party leader Elizabeth May, former high-profile MPs Anne McLellan, Megan Leslie, and Jim Prentice, and current Nova Scotian MPs Colin Fraser, Sean Fraser, and Geoff Regan.
As proud as we are of the names on that list, I think that we’re often a little too blinded by the bright lights of the media coverage that politicians recieve. Politics aren’t, and shouldn’t be, the only way of conceptualizing public service. Public service is so much more than political involvement. At its core, it encompasses all efforts that strengthen our communities.
Since prehistoric times — back when Grok the Spear-Thrower first teamed up with Urg the Mammoth-Tracker and Mog the Medicine-Maker — we’ve known that we are stronger when working together. We all learn different skills at Dalhousie, and it is only if we come together and apply our skills for the betterment of our communities that we can reach our full potential.
This may seem a little counter-intuitive, especially at a time of year when we are subjecting ourselves to a grueling mental gauntlet in an effort to showcase our individual progress and stand out from the rest of the pack. In such stressful, competitive moments, we may have a tendency to slip into more individualistic conceptions of why we are here — to tell ourselves that we are working hard and paying big bucks because university gives us the tools to make better lives for ourselves.
That view isn’t wrong. We are improving our skills and positioning ourselves to take advantage of opportunities that we wouldn’t have access to otherwise. It fails to consider the big picture though. None of us lives in isolation from the rest of society. Individual success means little if our community is struggling—a billionaire on a sinking yacht is just as likely to become shark food as his crew if he doesn’t do his part to help patch the leak.
Since we can only truly move ourselves forward by giving back, we must use what we’ve gained from university to help improve our communities. Whether that means here in Halifax, or somewhere else, our time at Dalhousie has given us the means, and thus the responsibility, to improve the lives of those who surround us.
There isn’t any single correct way to do this. Not everyone will be a prime minister, cabinet minister, or premier—but you don’t need to be. For nearly two centuries now, students from Dalhousie with varied backgrounds have changed and improved the communities we call home. We’ve volunteered our time, skills, and resources to charities, organized community events, helped underserved areas and populations access important services, campaigned for causes, and added our voices in support of those who haven’t enjoyed the same advantages we have.
The most important lesson I’ve learned in law school is one I learned the first day from Dean Kim Brooks: “You are not your grades.” Everyone should repeat this mantra as we enter into the exam season. Our final grades are not the measure of what we are capable of, nor should we confuse them with our purpose for being here. Our skills are worth so much more than the piece of paper we receive at the end of our Dalhousie journey.
Keeping all of this in mind, let’s make this exam season different. As we enter the final days of the fall semester and the pressure mounts, I plead with you: don’t lose focus on what your time here thus far has given you — or on what these gifts could do for others.
While it may be every student for themselves when it comes to finding a quiet study desk in the Killam over the next few weeks, our ultimate objective — building stronger communities across Canada — will require much more of a team-oriented mentality.
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