"Healthy Connections"

by Justin G. Nelson

Senior Spanish Major with a Minor in Educational Studies from Blue Island, Illinois

My fellow classmates of the class of 2007, I have some thoughts to share with you! Our time here at Ripon has not been an academic preparation alone (I think we can all agree on that fact!), but an opportunity for us to grow into healthy individuals: through interpersonal relationships, shared stories, and unique challenges, in order to become individuals of service to our world. As we leave what we lovingly have come to nickname our "Ripon bubble" and enter that "real" world of families, careers, apartment searches, and the dreaded paying of the student loan, it will at times become hard to maintain the balanced, healthy life that we each have developed here at Ripon. But, that does not mean it has to be impossible. Let us explore this concept of the "Ripon-healthy" individual and his or her responsibility to the world.

A person who has learned that the trick to life is not to think of your life as separated into academic, professional, personal, or spiritual categories, but to think of your life as a composition of all; building one, solid, well-rounded, "Ripon-healthy" individual, is what I propose we have all become. Our special brand of balanced health is forged during those unique moments that add to our Ripon story: late nights (or all night) in Farr Hall conducting research, days spent in the library doing research or typing papers, time spent traveling on the team bus, avoiding homework for a while by hanging out in the Tri-Dorms basement talking about everything and nothing, all these events are connections to parts of our lives that contribute to our overall emotional, physical, and interpersonal health by making CONNECTIONS to others. And this is THE KEY! We have made healthy connections, connections that are their own living and breathing entities. They are the people and experiences that we will remember always and call upon to maintain that Ripon-ness when we are gone. They are the people sitting next to you, the experience happening right now. They are our neighbors who, as the parable of The Good Samaritan that we have just heard shows us, will show us mercy arid compassion and who must be showed mercy and compassion in return. We enter a world beyond the bubble where Jesus’ charge to us to "Go and do likewise;" that is, to help our neighbor and show all people compassion, is a not only a charge, but an absolute necessity.

By using these skills and lessons learned during our time at Ripon, including Ripon-abroad, to better our lives always, we become life-long Ripon-healthy persons. Over these past few years, that is what we have been doing! Learning how to be more than ourselves--how to be a part of something bigger--which we are a part of NOW--, something so special and unique that no one else but us has had the opportunity to experience. This is what makes us such a valuable part of that world outside the bubble! The world out there today NEEDS some of our Ripon bubble, wouldn't you agree? In the reading from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, we hear a stirring description of a world in need of service. He describes the situation, saying "The desperate state of our world calls us to action. Each of us has a responsibility to try to help at the deeper level of our common humanity.” And this thought leads me to my charge to all of us, my challenge to have us bring that good ol’ Ripon-healthiness to the world.

Our responsibility to the world outside "the bubble" is to extend what we have learned and experienced uniquely in Ripon to the world at large, to our communities, to our families, to all the world's stages, in order to better the situations of all around us, to make just and fair decisions that benefit our world most, to help humanity at that "deeper level." The Dalai Lama sets forth the same premise, stating, "It is our responsibility--out of love and compassion for humankind--to seek harmony among nations, ideologies, cultures, ethnic groups, and economic and political systems." How do we, as graduates of Ripon College in 2007, carry out this enormous responsibility? By service. Service by healing. Service by maintenance. To make Ripon more than just the bubble, but that larger entity we are now all a part of. The world "out there."

Part of maintaining our own over-all health is not only helping ourselves but helping others, always working to maintain a healthy world; more, a "Ripon-healthy" world, strong in individual faith and compassion. That is our challenge now, my class. As echoed in the reading from Isaiah, "Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?" Well, my friends and family, by graduating from this institution and becoming responsible, well-educated, and fully healthy human beings, is this not indeed the road that we choose? The life that we elect to lead? Reflect upon that decision, that life-time challenge of service, as we go forth and serve our local and global communities, as proud Ripon graduates of the class of 2007! Good luck to us all on that journey! Thank you.