Making Your Life Extraordinary

Chances are at least some people reading this have seen "Dead Poets' Society" somewhere along the way.  But since the film has been out more than twenty years (and since you probably watch a lot of movies), there's a good chance you've forgotten one of the DPS's best scenes. 

It takes place near the beginning of the film, where John Keating (Robin Williams), a new teacher at a buttoned-up prep school, gives his students a lesson they weren't expecting.  Here's the clip:

Funny, eh?  But also thoughtful.  For as Keating points out, life is fleeting.  Time passes.   Dreams  wither if not nurtured. 

What does Keating's meditation on life--his advice to his students to seize the day (Carpe Diem)--have to do with starting college?  

Plenty. 

No matter where you are in life--just graduated from high school, recently out of the military, heading back to the classroom after years away--Nassau represents a new start.  That's a cliche, of course, but there's truth here too.  College represents a chance to begin again, to consider possibilities, to chase dreams, even to re-invent yourself.

But all of this will happen only if you recognize--and take seriously--the moment at hand. Your dreams will  materialize only if you actively pursue them, even if in doing so you take risks that might have once seemed out of the question.  

Translation: Try your very best to make your life extraordinary (however you define the word).  And don't be afraid to seize the day.

So listen up: no going through the motions in college!  You've an education to get and a life to live--no time to be anything less than enthusiastic about both.