At the Bookstore's poster sale the other day, I bought a poster with a rather intriguing Helen Keller quote overlaying a beautiful image of a wolf's face. "No fear,” it reads. "Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure ... life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.” I brought it back home — or to my dorm, I should say, dorm sweet dorm! — and now it hangs on my dresser behind me as I type this.
Now, I can’t speak for all first years, but I think I’ve had my fair share of danger in life. Both in the kind we walk in groups at nighttime to avoid, and that which is involved in the most minute risks. As anyone who asks me "Diana, where are you from?" quickly figures out, I lived in Tajikistan for half of high school before moving to Virginia for my senior year. I never shut up about it. And since I've often had to explain the location of Tajikistan by referencing its southern neighbor, Afghanistan, I've learned living near Afghanistan is considered quite a dangerous thing to do.
I never got that memo, although one would think I’d be tipped off from the time my mother was offered $10,000 USD and four kilograms of heroin for our family car, but maybe I'm just oblivious.
Keller may not have been thinking of drug-dealing terrorists when she said life should be an adventure. Rather, I believe she was talking about the daring adventures in life which arise from inevitable change.
Take another example from me: one year ago, I barely knew what U.Va. was, and I had been living in Virginia for not much more than a month. I disliked it here. It was new, unfamiliar and everything and everyone looked the same to me. It wasn’t my choice to be here, so I was determined to leave.
Yet with the pressure of college applications, I applied to U.Va. and several others to ensure my acceptance to at least one school. Even after my acceptance, I recall declaring, “I’m not going to U.Va.!” for I was obsessed with leaving behind the state border line, and thus finally choosing where I get to live my life.
Then, Days on the Lawn happened. It was a rainy morning on which my dad and I unintentionally discovered the Rotunda in our attempts to locate Old Cabell, even though I can’t recollect the path I took to get there. I do recall it being my dad who actually realized the Rotunda was, in fact, the Rotunda, because I am forever oblivious. I remember how happy the green trees on the Lawn made me. I had never seen anything like Grounds before, and as skeptical as I was, I had to admit that it was beautiful. Of course, the academics didn’t hurt either — I may not have known about the iconic Rotunda beforehand, but I knew U.Va. was highly ranked for pretty much anything I could anticipate studying. I began to change my mind radically.
My adventure here on Grounds also started a bit early for a first year: after enrolling in our own Summer Language Institute, I spent seven weeks of my summer living in Hereford by night and studying Russian in Nau Hall by day. My surroundings were once again new and unfamiliar to me, but I have learned a lot since then. And I’m still learning with every day I spend here.
I’d say I took a pretty big risk in coming here, and so far it has turned out much better than I could have anticipated. This may not be the other side of the world, but it’s definitely pushed me far out of my comfort zone, as I can imagine it did my fellow first years from all over Virginia, the United States and the world. Things have changed a lot for me in the past weeks, but I have decided this is home now.
I like my poster. It’s a testament to my past adventures — or as I often say, misadventures — and a reminder to be courageous in the face of all challenges that come my way. Whatever I encounter in this new “daring adventure” I face for the next four years of my life, I will be able to take it.
Diana’s column runs biweekly Thursdays. She can be reached at d.renelt@cavalierdaily.com.
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