Nearly every morning, I walk by a plaque on the side of Parrish Hall that reads, “Courage and … Patience.” It’s become something of a routine to glance over to the inscription as I start my day.
Somehow, I never noticed it before this fall, even though I must have walked past it countless times before.
Some days I notice how the sun catches the plaque, and I think about what my painting professor says about finding saturation in light and desaturation in shadow. Some days I think about the satisfaction with which the quote’s author must have chuckled when they thought to add the ellipses before patience. Some days I consider the class year above the quote — 1933 — and think about how bizarre it is that I live in the same dorm room someone did in 1933.
Some days I am in a rush to grab a coffee before my first class and I don’t see the plaque at all. On the busiest of Swat days, presentness of any kind seems to fall by the wayside as I get swept up in readings and assignments and meetings.
As my time at Swarthmore comes to a close, I find myself recalling the moments in which I was consciously noticing; the times I was just trying to get through the day will quickly fade from memory.
I’ll remember the feeling of lying in the grass on the Cherry Border and watching the sun sparkle through the trees to the tune of my friends’ favorite songs. I’ll remember the pit in my stomach when I was woefully lost in class and the professors who could read my face well enough to know I was confused, sometimes even before I did. I’ll remember being annoyed by the persistent music and conversation that flowed through my open windows on warm nights and the change of heart I (usually) had as I remembered that those were likely moments of presentness for whoever was in the courtyard.
So, in the typical graduating-Swattie fashion, I will offer you younger students some unsolicited and slightly corny advice. Here are some things I recommend trying to notice (in no particular order).
- What opportunities do you have at Swarthmore that are truly once-in-a-lifetime? Will you regret not taking advantage of some of them?
- How do your friends make you feel?
- How much time are you spending on your phone?
- Have you ever taken a class you knew nothing about beforehand?
- Are there people you interact with every day who you don’t know at all?
- When was the last time you paused for birdsong? (Thanks to Montana Hamel ’26 for that contribution.)
