Our Students in the Arena

There is a famous speech by President Theodore Roosevelt, which hangs prominently in my son’s bedroom. While the complete speech, which was delivered on April 23, 1910 at the Sorbonne in Paris, is titled Citizenship in a Republic, many know the excerpt I will refer to below as The Man in the Arena. It’s something I have read to my son many times throughout his young life to emphasize the importance of effort over outcomes. 

 

The Man in the Arena

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. 

Outcomes are hard to control – we can’t always guarantee a certain grade on a test or (in my son’s case) a winning t-ball game – but we can make sure that we show up, put in the work, and give it our all. 
 

As I read these words again this past weekend I couldn’t help but think of our seniors in the Class of 2025. Over the past two years they have faithfully entered the arena known as the college process again and again. Whether it was having the courage to approach an admissions rep at the NACAC Fair, display their vulnerability through an insightful college essay, or get back up and submit more applications after an initial deferral or denial, we proudly witnessed them “[striving] to do the deeds.” And I imagine, if you were to ask them, they could all relate to the feeling of a “face…marred by dust and sweat and blood.” 

 

Together, the Class of 2025 submitted almost 600 individual applications to more than 200 colleges. That is a prolific arena. Now, they are about to enter another: adulthood. For many, college will be their first time living away from home; the first time they have to navigate a difficult conversation with a friend or faculty member without the support of their parents; the first time they have to make hard decisions about the direction they want their life and career to take.

 

My greatest hope, as our young people enter this new arena, is that they will continue to show up and be active participants in their education, their communities and their lives. I hope that they will “strive valiantly” – take the classes that excite (but maybe also intimidate) them, study abroad somewhere they’ve never been, “spend themselves in a worthy cause” – so that they will truly feel the ”triumph of high achievement.” And if they stumble, which any of us who have ever reached for a dream can relate to (“...for there is no effort without error and shortcoming”), at least they will carry the confidence that comes from “daring greatly.”  
 

To the Class of 2025 – our students in the arena – we are so proud of you! Never stop striving for what you want.