One Final Squawk
by Carlyn Reichel on April 29, 2009 in Opinion
In trying to decide what this final column should be about, I knew I wanted to reflect on the significance of our time here at HKS. What have been my lessons learned, the growth experiences before being released back into the world as a proper adult - employed (I can only hope), effective, and possessing greater erudition. And the one thing that keeps popping up is not the activity-based costing, the beta coefficients, or the Congress insanity, but the people.
I came to the Kennedy School to find myself - instead I found all of you. I found more of myself too, but the great facilitator of that wasn’t any reading lists or in-class discussion; it was the conversations in the hallways, the hours of loge-lurking in the Forum, the multitudinous pints at Shay’s and Grendel’s and Tommy Doyle’s and…I’ll stop now.
All of us are perhaps a little more sober-minded now than we were this time last year. Last year’s graduating class went into the world pre-global financial collapse, filled with the hope that a new president could magically right all ills, and not facing the worst employment market since the Great Depression. Today’s world is a much scarier place beyond the sanctity of our HKS haven. And yet, I remain calm and hope-filled, because of you. You have even stifled my snarkier impulses in favor of sentimental reflection. Well, most of them.
So this is to be my swan song as your humble neighborhood opinions editor, and as such, I’ll address it directly to you, friends.
To those moving on, I’m tempted to steal Garrison Keillor’s famous Writer’s Almanac sign-off: “Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.” But put that on steroids. Be amazing, challenge the foundations of the earth, shake the heavens, feel no compunction about doing it, and send me lots of postcards along the way! The greatest lesson I take away from the Kennedy School is a confident assurance that there are amazing, dedicated people heading back into the world ready to tackle every problem the world faces today, in every corner of the globe.
To those staying behind, I echo all of the above with the added note: give ‘em hell. Don’t let the Kennedy School rest on its laurels or devolve into a place we’re no longer proud to be affiliated with. Tackle the problems right here. Make your last year here count, even if that means burning bridges with the administration, blowing off your classes, or staying out way too late with friends when you should be writing your PAE.
To all of us together, don’t protect your future self at the expense of being who you are now. I know that we all carefully groom ourselves for where we’d like to be in 20 years time and take measured steps to achieve our goals - it’s the impulse that brought us to HKS in the first place. But please, please don’t let that circumspection limit your willingness to affect change or put yourself out there today.
The idea of a swan song dates back millennia to the legend of the mute swan, Cygnus olor, a species that makes no sound until the very end of its life when it sings one beautiful song, then dies. This original meaning is a surprisingly apt description of Kennedy School students at times. Few of us have the opportunity to speak in our own voice publicly; one of the surprising paradoxes of the Kennedy school has been that fewer of us take it.
All year, I have encountered the difficulty of getting people to put their opinions down on the page for posterity out of fear of offending someone, fear of retribution, fear of implications for future career aspirations. All fears of tomorrow stifling action today. The pervasive sense at the Kennedy School is that we will remain mute until it is our time to sing, but the expectation is that when we sing it will change the world. There are problems in the world and right here at HKS that need your voice, your pen, your body today, not 20 years from today. Don’t wait.
Hopefully my opinionating over the course of this year has not been just overbearing claptrap, inadvertently sabotaging to my future self - though I’m aware there’s been plenty of that too. But even if it has been, it’s worth it. It has been my honor to walk the halls of HKS with you for the past two years, and it has been a privilege to occupy so much as a biweekly speck of your attention. Thank you for your forbearance and your friendship.
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Under the title of “Stark Contrasts: The Tale of Two Cities or The Tale of Two International Borders. Compare the behavior of Toronto, Canada (SARS) response to concern for its neighbors to the South and the Mexico City, Mexico(Swine Flu) response to concerns for its neighbors to the North. A study of Leadership and values.JB