Experience teaches the most important lesson
By Debbie Peterson
 Debbie Peterson -- Guest Column
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“I am telling you what I have found. Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. We can find it, we can live it, we can be carried by it, we can work wonders with it, but we cannot utter it or teach it.” This quote is form the book Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse, which I read over the summer. As I read this sentence I was struck by the insight it offered.
If I had read this book earlier in my life, this particular sentence may not have caught my attention. As I grow older, and life continues to add lessons with each new experience, my attitude and view of the world has changed. Just as I hope that everyone’s views will change or at least expand with time, and I have come to the point that I realize what Hesse is trying to say. Real wisdom can only come from personal experience, not second hand experience, but by actually learning things the hard way.
It’s unfortunate that we (humans, students, whatever category is preferred) need to make mistakes in order to learn. Especially since the repercussions of mistakes are usually difficult to initially live with. I don’t know how many times my parents, or anyone else for that matter, may have tried to tell me what they know, and pass on to me their understanding and wisdom. While I have just rolled my eyes and nodded politely with the distant look in my eyes that I hoped would adequately inform the speaker of my disinterest, and discourage further lectures. Though their only concern was to help, with the loving intention of making my life easier, I absorbed nothing. Since I had not experienced for myself what they had lived and learned, it was useless information to me, the constant babble of parents, background noise.
It would be easy to now say, “Listen to those who came before you, your elders, because they probably know a thing or two about life, love, money, jobs, or whatever,” but I don’t think that that angle works anymore. It just doesn’t suit human nature, and especially not adolescent human nature. (Yet, trying to listen still wouldn’t hurt) Instead, I want to encourage each and every person to get out there and live. Make mistakes, and learn. College is just beginning, and we are all now in the position to start our lives in whatever direction we each see fit.
Follow your heart, and if the path you are on leads to something that just doesn’t feel right, or you hit a dead end, turn around and try another\ direction. Join different organizations, introduce yourself to somebody new, build relationships, and experience everything! No matter what, even if something goes bad, life will continue on, and you will have learned something.
As the school year begins, I want all SCSU students to realize what a wonderful point in their lives they are on the brink off. Each of us stands at a point where we can do, or say, or be whatever we want.
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