I recently got some great advice about life after college: start thinking about the path which is going to help you make meaning of your life, and do that.

 

I think if I had to assign the way that DU feels for me, the way that the opposite of loneliness that I feel here has manifested in my life, I would describe it as that. Meaning-making.

 

I’m honestly not sure that I’m any more qualified than the next confused graduating senior to give you unsolicited advice, but I’m going to do it anyway, because that’s my right as an emotional graduate who has to start paying her loans soon. So here it comes, unsolicited as can be.

 

Dear Pioneer, if you have time left at the University of Denver, I’m not just telling you, I’m begging you: make meaning.

 

As Student Body Vice President this past year, I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned about communicating with a massive group of people (yes, we know that most of you don’t read the weekly email, and yes, we’re working on it). I’ve learned that if you’re going to complain about something, don’t do it unless you have a proposed solution in-hand, too. I’ve learned the value of allowing oneself to be vulnerable, even with total strangers. Especially with total strangers. I’ve learned which caffeinated drinks are best for all-nighters, where to find free food on campus any day of the week, and that someone as short as I should never wear a long necklace when meeting and hugging important people, lest you want to find yourself stuck on Joe Biden’s suit jacket.

 

This has been nothing short of the most transformative and educational year of my life. I’ve also learned something that has devastated me constantly, and I don’t really know how to overcome it.

 

I’ve learned that students at DU vastly underestimate their own power.

 

It blows my mind that so many students here think they are powerless in shaping their institution and their DU experience because you all have SO. MUCH. POWER. The student voice matters. I want to say that again. The student voice matters.

 

I see you, the proverbial you, complain on Facebook and in comments on Yik Yak. I hear students passing on Driscoll, musing, “wouldn’t it be so cool if DU did XYZ…” but I never see them make moves towards it. I wish I’d gotten more emails from you this year, asking me to do things or connect you with people. I wish you knew that sometimes all it takes to make a change here is bringing it to someone’s attention, finding someone who wants to be in your corner. There are more people here that want to be in your corner than you’d ever believe.

 

So whatever it means for you in your DU experience, I’m begging you to please make meaning. And I don’t just mean join one club, or make a lot of fun memories abroad. I mean really dig deep and make meaning for yourself at this institution. I did. It changed my life.

 

When Cam and I ran a year ago, we asked you all, “if you could change anything about DU, just snap your fingers and suddenly DU would be different, what would that look like?” And then I spent the last year of my life making meaning by doing what we could to implement those changes. I learned a ton in the process. But most of all, I learned that you all had the power to implement those changes yourselves.

 

So today I’m asking you that same question. You have just four short years here to make your own meaning of this place, and they will go faster than you think. How do you want to change DU? Whatever just flashed across your mind, the thing or twenty things you want to change – please use that as your jumping off point for meaning-making, and see where it takes you. Be an unstoppable force, and if someone tells you no, keep digging until someone else tells you yes. They will. I promise.

 

Email the Chancellor. Hold a protest. Host a student formal. Bring a new mascot to campus. Let your passion be uncontainable. Attend a USG meeting and tell them your story. Tell them how you want to work together to change your story. Tell DUPB you want to bring camels and a ballpit to campus. Take a few steps of action. Get so passionate about something that you’ll sacrifice sleep to achieve it. See who gets on board. Make meaning. Refuse to resign yourself as one of the people who spends four years of their life coasting through DU. Get mad about something. Give a damn. Make. Meaning.

 

There were so many things I wanted to leave you all with when my USG term was over. Free hockey tickets, the tiniest bit more trust in your administration or your student government, feeling supported as a survivor of sexual assault on our campus… But after a year of working to leave this campus with all of those things, what I want to leave you with the most is a genuine belief that you hold the power to change this institution by doing nothing more than being a student with an idea.

 

The notion that we, the students of the University of Denver, could actually change this place is far from radical. It may be the least radical thing I’ve heard all year. And in making meaning of my time here, I see that now.

 

I hope that in making your own meaning of this place, you may find the same.

 

In Pioneer Spirit,

Jess Davidson

Emotional Graduating Senior and Outgoing Student Body Vice President