This term has been by far the hardest of my degree. Having chosen a slightly nightmarish paper combination, I have been forced to spend far more time in the library than ever before and to significantly cut down my extra-curricular activities. Combined with gloomy winter weather, and a seemingly ever-worsening disability, it has hardly been the most joyous seven weeks.
But within that misery, there are always moments of joy and opportunities to be grateful. The point I wish to make here is simple: that regardless of how bad life gets, there is always something to be grateful for or to take solace in. This is especially pertinent in the Oxford context. When we arrive for our first open day, or offer holder day, or even our first day of our first Michaelmas, almost all of us are struck with something of a sense of awe.
But as that first day gets further away, that sense of awe quickly fades. Bound up in endless essays, dinners and stressful tutorials, we start to forget just how lucky we are to be at this University at all – and to be afforded the opportunities that we have. We live in an ever-competitive world. There is always another rung to climb, another Committee position to apply for, another mark to be gained in an exam. Looking at the range of things I’ve achieved over the first half of my degree, I am confident that fresher me would have been extremely pleased – but second year me still wants to achieve more and more.
If you choose to, you can always be looking to the future – endlessly seeking some endpoint that you’re sure will satisfy you. But almost certainly once you get there, you’ll choose a new endpoint. Or, you can choose to be present and grateful – to acknowledge just how awesome a privilege it is to be at this University at this present moment. You can acknowledge how special it is to have access to the best academics, the best libraries, and the best classmates.
I would argue also that you have a responsibility to acknowledge the thousands of people who would want to be exactly where you are right now. In 2023, Oxford gave offers to 16% of those who applied for undergraduate courses, which means that every year thousands of students across the country are told that they can’t have what you have right now. This was brought home to me when I was discussing with my girlfriend whether we should go to watch the Union debate that night, and I realised that there were likely thousands of young people across the globe who would give so much to have the opportunity to sit in that chamber once – a privilege I enjoy on a weekly basis.
Of course, sometimes you must complain – and rightfully so. The world is only made better when we challenge the status quo. But I would also challenge you to be a little more grateful. Next time you struggle with a paper, think about how incredible it is that you even get to study that paper. Next time you get rejected from a Committee, think about what a privilege it is to be eligible to be a member of that society in the first place.
Life is hard, I don’t query this in the slightest. Nor do I query that for many of you reading this, it will seem hard to be grateful for the life that you currently lead, and I acknowledge that the challenges you have faced likely far outstrip mine. Put simply, however, to live in the modern western world means you are one of the luckiest humans ever to be alive; and to be at this University makes you even luckier.
