A

lmost five years ago, 
I attended freshman 
student 
orientation. 

I 
attended 
campus 
tours 

and 
backpacking 

sessions 
with 

peer 
advisors, 

learning 
about 

the myriad things 
the 
University 
of 

Michigan 
had 
to 

offer. 
I 
felt 
like 

a kid in a candy 
shop as I examined 
the 
massive 

array 
of 
student 

organizations, 
majors and course options. My 
new peers were impressive 
and intimidating, and the 
prospect of sharing classes 
with many of them was both 
exciting and overwhelming.

At 
orientation, 
the 

University of Michigan was 
novel and alien. I didn’t know 
what I would do here — what 
was I capable of and what 
I wanted to do were both 
questions that had yet to be 
answered. 

It 
didn’t 
take 
long 
for 

me to find my first role 
model — one of the peer 
advisors at an orientation 
backpacking 
session. 
She 

had just graduated from the 
University, and was headed to 
Northwestern University Law 
School the following fall. I 
was completely in awe of this 
person I barely knew.

At that time, I had nebulous 

aspirations of maybe becoming 
a lawyer someday. I didn’t know 
many lawyers, and certainly 
not female ones. But that peer 
advisor showed me what was 
possible if I worked hard and 
took advantage of the many 
opportunities the University 
offered. 
I 
left 
orientation 

feeling inspired and excited to 
start my college career.

But shortly after I moved 

into my first dorm room in 
the fall, I felt completely 
and utterly lost. Many of my 
hallmates 
seemed 
to 
have 

dozens of close friends from 
the first day of Welcome Week, 
and already knew what they 
wanted to major in and which 
student 
organizations 
they 

wanted to be participate in.

I met wonderful people 

and made lots of friends, but 
really missed the close bonds 
I had with my family and 
friends from high school. I 

loved my classes, 
but definitely didn’t 
have the next four 
years planned out. 
I attended meetings 
for 
student 

organizations, 
but 

didn’t feel like I had 
found my place on 
campus yet.

To be fair, I was 

only a few weeks into 
my college career at 

this point, so I wouldn’t exactly 
call this a crisis. But it seemed 
like my peers were already 
enjoying “the best four years of 
their lives,” and I wondered if I 
had made a mistake in coming 
to Michigan.

One day during that first 

semester, I wandered out of 
my 
dorm, 
across 
Maynard 

Street, and into the Student 
Publications Building. It was 
pretty and incredibly close, 
and I just wanted to see what it 
was like inside. A man told me 
to come back for The Michigan 
Daily’s 
information 
session 

later that night, and I did.

I went to the info session 

thinking I might like to be 
a Daily photographer. But 
after listening to the editorial 
page editors pitch EditBoard, 
the group of students that 
debates and writes the Daily’s 
editorials, I decided to join.

Joining Edit Board required, 

among other things, writing 
bylined op-eds from my own 
perspective in addition to the 
editorials written from the 
outline created by the entire 
group. My first op-ed changed 
my entire college experience.

Expressing my opinions in 

print taught me their value. It 
showed me that the thoughts 
in my own head — my voice, 
my unique way of thinking 
about the world — were worth 
sharing. In 650 words or less, I 
became more outspoken, self-
confident and self-aware.

I stopped viewing myself 

as one person in a sea of 
absurdly talented students, 
and started viewing myself 
as a writer with stories to tell 
— my stories, which I didn’t 

need to change or conform 
to anyone else’s ideology, 
experience or worldview.

I kept writing for the 

Daily. There are more than 
50 pieces with my name on 
them floating around the 
internet. Many have been 
well-received; 
others 
have 

stirred 
controversy 
and 

drawn criticism.

One of my earlier columns 

was posted on a blog read 
by people who, uh, didn’t 
quite agree with my message. 
They left dozens of angry 
comments, ridiculing me and 
my work. I’d be lying if I said 
I didn’t cry about it at the 
time. But if I had a running 
list of my best experiences 
in college, publishing that 
column would be on it. I grew 
more as a person from being 
the 
momentary 
target 
for 

angry internet trolls than I 
did from most classes I took at 
the University.

Some opinions and stances 

— whether on political issues 
like feminism or on ethical 
decisions 
at 
work 
— 
are 

unpopular and controversial. 
That doesn’t diminish their 
importance. 
Learning 
to 

stand up for causes I believe 
in has taught me how to stand 
up for myself — one of the 
most important things anyone 
can learn.

Above 
all, 
writing 
for 

the Daily helped me find a 
place for myself within a 
massive campus community. 
It gave me an identity and a 
sense of direction. The self-
confidence and sense of self 
I developed as a result paved 
the way for everything else 
I accomplished and decided 
to do at the University of 
Michigan. 

In a little over two weeks, 

I will walk across the stage 
at the Big House, officially 
concluding my time on this 
campus. In the fall, I’m going 
to attend a law school I never 
would’ve even dreamed of 
getting into five years ago. I’ll 
have to leave the home I’ve 
found at Michigan, but now I 
know how to build a new one.

Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4 — Thursday, April 13, 2017

REBECCA LERNER

Managing Editor

420 Maynard St. 

Ann Arbor, MI 48109

 tothedaily@michigandaily.com

Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890.

EMMA KINERY

Editor in Chief

ANNA POLUMBO-LEVY 

and REBECCA TARNOPOL 

Editorial Page Editors

Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s Editorial Board. 

All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS

Thank you, Michigan Daily

VICTORIA NOBLE | COLUMN

Victoria Noble can be reached at 

vjnoble@umich.edu.

 Your next hurdle should not be 
the end of the race. Of course, 
the completion of that midterm 
you’ve been agonizing over for 
weeks feels incredible. Finally 
turning in those internship 
applications 
that 
you 
told 

yourself you would have in 
by last Tuesday seems like a 
justification for celebration. 
But should we let that satisfy 
us completely? I don’t mean 
to say that we should not take 
pleasure in our successes; the 
joy derived from our dedication 
and 
accomplishments 
is 

necessary 
for 
progression 

and worthy of more emphasis 
than it can possibly receive. 
But when we begin to think 
of our next hurdle as the end 
of a sprint, we can easily tire 
ourselves out. 

What I mean by this is that 

we often lose sight of the 
bigger picture. Our upcoming 
presentations, 
projects 

and 
papers 
become 
our 

destinations. We say that we 
“just need to get through to the 
weekend.” The problem with 
this mentality is that it never 
ends. Once you’ve completed 
that midterm, you might feel 
content for the weekend, but 
dissatisfaction 
resurfaces 

before you know it, and you’re 
pining for the next break.

However, once we recognize 

that these challenges are just 
steps in the journey, we can 
maintain endurance. Instead 
of fatigue from the thought 
of running another race, we 

can take comfort in knowing 
we’ve taken a step in the 
right direction. We’re making 
progress.

This 
big-picture 

understanding also alleviates 
many of our fears. When 
we 
view 
every 
endeavor 

as 
an 
isolated 
trial, 
the 

fear of failure is immense. 
Everything depends on the 

upcoming race going our way. 
With a larger goal in mind, 
we leave ourselves room to 
improve. 
When 
we 
aren’t 

performing as well as we 
hoped to be, we have time left 
in the race to come back. In 
addition to this general relief, 
we perform better because we 
aren’t paralyzed by the fear 
of deeming our hard work 
worthless. 
All 
our 
efforts 

have value because we’re still 
heading in the right direction. 
The 
irreversible 
setbacks 

become amendable missteps.

With this in mind, we have a 

choice: We can conceptualize 
our race to success as isolated 
sprints, repeatedly starting 
and stopping, or as a cohesive 
pursuit. The cohesive pursuit 
doesn’t ensure your race will 
be shorter or less bumpy, but 
it does give you enthusiasm 
and 
stamina. 
You 
may, 

at times, feel that you’re 
moving at a glacial pace, 
but remember that you will 
start running again because 
you have momentum. This 
momentum can blur the lines 
of completion and tenacity.

Matthew 
McConaughey 

expressed this same idea in 
his 2014 Oscar acceptance 
speech when he discussed his 
response to being asked about 
his hero. At age 15, he said his 
hero was him in 10 years. At 
25, he said he wasn’t a hero. 
His hero was himself at 35. 
He was comfortable knowing 
he would never reach his goal 
because his ambitions always 
left him with “somebody to 
keep on chasing.”

So make big goals. When 

you 
near 
them, 
distance 

yourself from the finish line. 
That distance keeps you from 
stopping. 
And 
though 
the 

finish line may be invisible, 
when you look back, you 
can no longer see where you 
began, and you’ll know you’ve 
come a long way.

Never reach your destination

LAUREN ROYCE | OP-ED

Lauren Royce is an LSA junior.

Carolyn Ayaub
Megan Burns

Samantha Goldstein

Caitlin Heenan
Jeremy Kaplan

Sarah Khan

Anurima Kumar

Ibrahim Ijaz
Max Lubell

Alexis Megdanoff
Madeline Nowicki
Anna Polumbo-Levy 

Jason Rowland

Ali Safawi

Sarah Salman
Kevin Sweitzer

Rebecca Tarnopol

Stephanie Trierweiler

VICTORIA 

NOBLE

APPLY TO BE A COLUMNIST OR CARTOONIST

Have opinions? Love to write? Draw? Apply as a cartoonist or 

columnist for the Spring/Summer!

Visit http://tinyurl.com/summeropinion to find out more about 

where you might fit in this summer.

FROM THE DAILY

Continue to recognize our history
A 

series of seven pop-up art installations appeared around 
the University of Michigan’s Central, North and Medical 
Campuses between April 3 and April 8. The Stumbling 

Blocks exhibit, created by the Future University Community, was 
designed to reflect on and draw attention to problematic moments 
in the University’s history. The exhibit was included as part of the 
University’s bicentennial celebration to encourage the University 
community to reorient and reflect on its values and goals. The 
Michigan Daily Editorial Board commends the pop-up exhibit as 
a means for confronting the dubious history of the University and 
believes these reflections should become more regular, or even 
permanent, parts of our campus.

The interactivity of the 

Stumbling 
Blocks 
pieces 

created a unique foundation 
for dialogues across campus. 
The presence of self-reflective 
artwork on campus is crucial 
to 
the 
understanding 
of 

our 
past. 
By 
sponsoring 

self-critical 
work, 
the 

University took crucial steps 
to 
acknowledge 
historical 

issues 
that 
have 
impacted 

our campus and that some 
current University community 
members 
may 
have 
not 

otherwise known about. For 
example, the enlarged Native 
American Land Gift plaque 
drew attention to the fact that 
three Native American tribes 
gifted the University the land 
that it sits on, in the hopes 
that their children would be 
able to attend. Yet, for many 
years, very few, if any, Native 
American 
students 
were 

enrolled in the University. 
Many at the University may 
not have been aware of this 
essential 
context 
prior 
to 

observing the piece.

Furthermore, the exhibit 

was incredibly affective in 
nature, forcing observers to 
immediately feel connected 
to campus issues instead of 
listening to a set of facts in 
structured academic settings 
like lectures. One of the most 
visible portions of the exhibit 
was the 950 chairs in the Diag, 
representing the number of 

minority students that could 
not attend the University 
as a result of the state’s 
ban on gender- and race-
based affirmative action. We 
believe this resonated with 
community 
members 
more 

tangibly than simply sharing 
information on Proposal 2, 
a Michigan ballot initiative 
passed in 2006 that banned 
the use of gender- and race-
based affirmative action in 
admissions 
and 
was 
later 

ruled constitutional by the 
Supreme 
Court 
in 
2014. 

This 
tangible 
emotional 

connection makes the impacts 
of an abstract historical event 
more salient and powerful.

Nonetheless, we felt that by 

making the exhibit temporary, 
the University was not doing 
all it could to acknowledge 
its complex history and foster 
an 
important 
long-term 

conversation on the issues. 
The exhibits were only visible 
to people who happened to be 
on campus during a particular 
week, 
which 
may 
hamper 

their ability to create long-
lasting conversations on these 
important University issues.

The University community 

can learn from these exhibits 
going forward, by teaching 
us to reorient the way we 
display, think about and engage 
with campus issues. Pop-up 
installations, or other affective 
pieces, should become a more 

regular 
occurrence, 
so 
as 

to hold the University more 
accountable and better inform 
the campus population about 
our past pitfalls.

Furthermore, 
instead 
of 

simply 
disseminating 
the 

facts about these historical 
events through plaques, for 
example, 
there 
should 
be 

events or pieces created to 
catch our eyes and create 
unique 
interaction 
with 

historical 
issues. 
Students 

should also become more 
involved in the process of 
putting 
on 
these 
events 

and creating future pieces, 
as 
collaboration 
between 

University 
community 

members and the University 
itself is crucial to take strides 
to recognize our history. 

The University of Michigan 

community should be using 
its 
bicentennial 
to 
think 

about how we will move 
forward. Critically thinking 
about our past shortcomings 
is vital to informing our 
actions in the coming years. 
Using interactive exhibits, 
such as they did with the 
Stumbling Blocks art exhibit, 
creates a unique and engaging 
dialogue about this history 
throughout 
the 
campus 

community, and we implore 
the University to make these 
events and exhibits a staple 
of our community in the 
years to come.

— Passengers on United Airlines Flight 3411 on Sunday, 

responding to Chicago Department of Aviation officers assaulting 
and forcibly removing a passenger from the overbooked airplane 

to accommodate United employees.

“

NOTABLE QUOTABLE

Please, my God... What are you 
doing?... This is wrong... Look at 
what you did to him... Busted his 

lip...

”

When we begin 
to think of our 

next hurdle as the 

end of a sprint, 

we can easily tire 

ourselves out.

CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONVERSATION

Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor and op-eds. 
Letters should be fewer than 300 words while op-eds should be 550 
to 850 words. Send the writer’s full name and University affiliation to 

tothedaily@michigandaily.com.

