Embracing Failure

Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests. Mr. Belk, and my dear friend Billy Edd Wheeler. Mr. President, Mr. Former President, Mr. President Who Is Not Here As Yet, and those of you who hope one day to be president – good morning.

For those who came for the fashion show, and have no clue as to why I’m standing here, my name is Janis Ian. I am a songwriter by trade. I wrote my first song at twelve – was published at thirteen – made a record at fourteen, had a number one single at fifteen, was a has-been at sixteen.

By your age I was starting my second career, struggling to be known as something other than a child prodigy. Fortunately for me, I was again successful. Which doesn’t begin to explain why I’m here. In fact, I’m more at  a loss than any of you. I never graduated from college because I never went to college. For that matter, I barely went to high school. The first day of first grade, when my mother asked me how it had gone, I told her I hated it and was never going back.

I hated school all my life. I quit the day I turned sixteen, and I have never regretted it. So I find it ironic that I put my brother through college, my mother through college and graduate school, and my partner through law school. And after all that, I now help to fund a foundation that does the same for complete strangers.  I cannot understand it myself, except that I was taught to give back, and I can think of no better gift than an education.

I am nervous today because almost everything I know is self-taught. I learned from books, and movies, and other artists. So I’m not quite sure how to deal with a horde of people who know about things like final exams, graduation ceremonies, dorm rooms, and Sterno.

I tried to figure out what graduating must feel like. My last graduation ceremony was sixth grade, when the homeroom teacher gave us each a pencil box and warned us not to chew the erasers until the end of next year.

At first I wondered if it was like writing a song. There’s an incredible feeling of achievement; it’s like walking on air. And then, an equally incredible letdown as you wonder whether you’ll ever be able to do it again.

Then I thought perhaps it’s like making a record. That takes a good three months, a very long time in the life of a performer. And at the end, you feel pretty good about it… at least, until it comes out and no one but your family buys it.

Last, I thought maybe graduating from college must be like having a baby. That takes nine months, plus a little preparation. But unlike graduating, where you actually get to leave and move on, that baby is with you forever. Sometimes they even move back in, whereas I doubt most of you plan to come back here and take courses next semester.

Now, I think that going off to college and graduating must be like being an astronaut. One day, you’re down here in a familiar place. You know what is normal, what the sky looks like at night, what the air smells like when the grass is fresh-mowed. Your feet are planted on the earth, and you have a firm connection to that soil. You know the shape of the stars at night. There’s a certain comfort in all that.

Then one day, by your own choice, you leave it all behind and take off for outer space! And “normal” changes, because nothing is normal any longer. Even the familiar things – the Earth, now seen from the stars – gravity, where “up” is now a relative term– even those things are strange and unfamiliar.

So I think going off to college and graduating must be like being an astronaut. There’s the tremendous excitement when it begins, the fear and astonishment that you of all people get to do this great thing. Then there’s the wear and tear, the daily struggle, the incredible effort to make everything work. And at some point, there’s the boredom, the waiting for it to finally be over. Then, as you approach re-entry, the fear that you will fail, and in failing, be destroyed.

America is built on the dream of success. For centuries, that dream has been defined by financial achievement, political power, dominance and subjugation. We are rarely asked what success really represents to us, or why failure is so demeaning.

I rarely failed in what I did, because if I wasn’t good at it, I didn’t do it. I played piano at two, and played well. I picked up a guitar at ten, and within a couple of years I was writing songs good enough to get Grammy nominations. I succeeded in everything I did – writing, performing, recording. But in my early thirties, I found myself at a loss. I was wealthy, respected, admired… but I hated my work. I longed to be Picasso, and instead it felt like I was painting Christ on black velvet to sell at the local mall. And it was killing me.

You see, I am an artist. I believe that art saves. I believe it is often the only thing that stands between us and chaos. I have faith that while the world is crumbling, art survives. So to feel like my work was a mockery of what I could do, that I was not living up to my talent… well, it was killing me.

I was fortunate, at that time, to know a great lady of the theater – Stella Adler. She was 83 years old to my 33, and through her I’d come to understand that my legacy as an artist went far beyond the work of my generation. My legacy began with the first caveman who sat down around a fire and told a story of the day’s hunt. My legacy began the first time someone described the stars as diamonds, spread across a blanket in the sky. My legacy began when that first crude piece of life began – because that’s what art really is. A beginning.

And all I knew was endings.

When I told Stella I couldn’t seem to write anything that pleased me, she took my hands in hers and said “Oh, my dear. You have reached the age where talent is no longer enough.” I’d been successful because of my talent, but I had learned about as much as I could from my gifts, and it was time to learn differently now.

Truth be known, success doesn’t teach you much. Failure, disappointment, collapse – those are the things that build. You can only know what works when you know what doesn’t work. That’s hard-wired in our bones. How many times does a baby fall on its butt, before it learns to stand without help? It learns a lot from falling – up and down, sideways and backwards, coordination, looking ahead – paying attention. And every time it fails, those muscles get stronger.

I had to learn to fail before I could find my way again. So over the next few years, I took on a bunch of things I’d always been scared of before.

I took ballet. You can’t tell from there, but underneath this robe is not a ballerina’s body. My dance teacher told me months later that after my first day, her only thought was “Good God, how can I get her to leave and never come back?!”

I was awful at ballet. I was awful at opera, photography, physics, and line dancing. And I loved every minute of it, because I learned to separate knowledge from the worldly view of success.

So get used to failure. Learn to embrace it. Because this world will beat you up. This world remembers failure before it rewards success. It blurs the line between fame and notoriety, between pandering and achievement. You will fail, and fail over and over again. The rest of us survive it – so will you.

Speaking of failure, another thing to know as you go out to face the world is that most people will not like you. I’m sure you’re astonished to hear that, but it’s true. And that’s okay. Between Facebook and Twitter and Google Plus, we have so many friends we’re going to have to start hiring enemies just to see some contrast in our social lives.

A person can only tolerate so many friends. Robin Dunbar theorizes that humans only have the brain capacity to manage 100-250 relationships total.
250 people is about the amount of people graduating this year. Do you really know each and every one of them well enough to care what they think about you? Embrace you failed relationships. They will turn out to be more important than you’d think.

You  are the largest graduating class Warren Wilson College has known. That’s a great and a dangerous thing. Great, because it means the school’s message is being heard in ever-widening circles. Dangerous, because with growth comes temptation. We have only to look at the banking industry to know that.

So be good alumni. Not just by sending money. Any idiot can make money. Anyone with a bank account can send it. Money is important, but it’s just a medium of exchange. You can have fifty million dollars in your hands, but it won’t keep Alzheimer’s at bay. You can be as rich as Croesus, but if you are dying of thirst in the desert and your companion has only enough water for one, all the money in the world will not buy it for you.

Money is a medium of exchange. It has no intrinsic value. It’s only useful if you can use it to buy what’s really important. So think about what is really important to you.

From my vantage point, time and energy are precious commodities. I don’t  remember the last time I was bored, because I can’t remember the last time I had time to be bored. For me, money buys the time to do what I care about, not what’s expected of me.

You’ve spent much of your lives doing what this world expects of you. Honor your father and mother. Tie your shoelaces. Don’t wear pajamas to school. Get good grades, be upwardly mobile. Graduate.

Now they will expect other things. Straighten up. Get a job. Get married.  Raise 1.14 children. Don’t rock the boat, don’t push too hard, don’t take on things you can’t handle, don’t act like a kid any more, don’t don’t don’t.

People from your old life will say “I’ve known you for years. I know who you are, what you need, what you want. Choose this, not that. Trust me, I know what’s best for you.”

Don’t you believe it. Don’t you believe it for a second! No one knows better than you who you are. And who you are has changed enormously since you got here. If there is one thing you can count on in this world, it’s that people change. Relationships evolve. Nothing stays the same.

Years from now, this day will be just one highlight in a life of highlights. So pay attention. Learn to love yourself. I don’t mean how good you look, how smart you are, how whatever… love your self. The indefinable things that make you into you.

This world will not hand it to you. This world will grind your nose into the dust and dare you to get up. This world will tell you everything you cannot  become, and try to suck you into the poverty of its own diminished expectations.

Don’t fall for it. Don’t let fear rule you. Don’t even let it come into consideration. Live as though there is nothing on earth to fear. You will get hurt. Your heart will get hurt. There will be pain. This world is a hard and unyielding place – but it is a good place to be alive. And if you make your own mistakes, if you embrace your own failures, they will be yours, and you will learn from them and profit by them.

At the end of the day, we all stand alone.  I have lived with the love of my life for 23 years, and yet at the end of the day, I know we are alone.

You are a country of one. You must make your own miracles. And you cannot make a miracle without failing now and then.

Astonish yourself with your bravery, and you will astonish the world as well.

Thank you for your time.

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You also can read the Senior Speech by biology major Sam Wasko here.

Prospective students will be able to meet faculty, staff and current students; tour the campus; learn more about the academic program, the Warren Wilson College Triad and financial aid; and have an admission interview. Open House visitors also are invited to enjoy lunch as guests of the college.

For more information or to make reservations, call the admission office at 828-771-2021 or 800-934-3536, or e-mail visit@warren-wilson.edu. You also can register online by clicking here.

More national media coverage of Warren Wilson in April can be found in The New York Times and in The Chronicle of Higher Education. And from May, here are two more NYT pieces featuring a Warren Wilson student and faculty member.

Skye Rios

Warren Wilson College student Skye Rios, a chemistry major from Eugene, Ore., who will graduate in May, has been awarded a coveted Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation.

Rios plans to study quantum mechanics and renewable energy, specifically hydrogen production, in the physical chemistry department at the University of Colorado in Boulder. In his personal statement submitted as part of the NSF fellowship application, Rios pointed to a course at Warren Wilson that sparked a strong interest in alternative fuels research.

“In Analytical Chemistry class, I had an epiphany while studying climatic tipping points: I realized I could combine my passions by using chemistry to understand and address climate change,” he wrote. He later applied for and received a summer research position at the Center for Enabling New Technologies through Catalysis (CENTC).

Regarding the NSF fellowship, Rios credited Warren Wilson’s learning Triad of academics, work and service for giving his application a boost. “I think that many of the values held by the NSF are supported by our Triad,” he said.

The NSF program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited U.S. institutions in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines supported by the NSF. Graduate research fellows receive three years of support, including a $30,000 annual stipend; a $10,500 cost-of-education allowance to the institution (expected to rise to $12,000 for 2012); international research and professional development opportunities; and supercomputer access.

Workshop topics include kayaking, beekeeping, basket weaving and more. Click here for a full workshop list.

In addition to workshops, there will be a barbecue with live music provided by the bluegrass band The Greasy Beans, an ice cream social and other family-friendly activities.

We hope that you consider making Weekend@Wilson part of your summer plans.

Register online here.

Please contact Ally Wilson at awilson@warren-wilson.edu or 828-771-2092 with any questions.

Steven L. Solnick, Ph.D., New Delhi Representative for the Ford Foundation since 2008, has been named by the Warren Wilson College Board of Trustees as the college’s seventh president, effective in July 2012. He will succeed Sandy Pfeiffer, who is retiring in June after six years as president.

Go here to read more about Warren Wilson’s seventh president. You also can read stories about Steve Solnick in The Chronicle of Higher Education and in The Warren Wilson Echo.

Warren Wilson is No. 4 nationwide on Sierra magazine’s 2011 list of “Coolest Schools” – college and universities recognized for their efforts to stop global warming and to operate sustainably. The “Coolest Schools” are featured as the cover story of Sierra’s September/October issue.

Warren Wilson has appeared on the annual list ever since it was launched by Sierra in 2007. The only other school in the Southeast to make the 2011 list is Appalachian State University, at No. 12.

According to the magazine, “Each year since 2007, we at Sierra have sat in our offices for weeks doing the detailed, quantitative work to rank U.S. universities on their greenness. This year, we also wanted to find out what lessons are learned when the classroom walls fall away.

“To derive the numbers, we asked the Sierra Club’s conservation experts to help us rejigger our 12-page questionnaire to reflect the Club’s most pressing priorities. We e-mailed surveys to 940 schools…. We corresponded with many of the colleges’ devoted sustainability officers.”

The “Coolest Schools” article in Sierra notes, “As part of Warren Wilson’s put-on-your-boots-and-grab-a-shovel philosophy, students grow trees, alfalfa, and corn and raise cows, pigs, and chickens on the school’s 250-acre farm.”

Observes Sierra editor-in-chief Bob Sipchen: “When students take what they’ve learned in the classroom and proceed to get their hands dirty in the real world, they realize the potential they have to make a difference. We’re thrilled to highlight these forward-thinking schools for emphasizing environmental responsibility, and for teaching, inspiring, and empowering students to effect real change.”

Coverage of this year’s “Coolest Schools” can be found here.  The page on Warren Wilson is here.

In addition to many other green accolades, Warren Wilson was named to The Princeton Review’s 2012 Green Rating Honor Roll comprising 16 schools, and to U.S. News & World Report’s list of “10 Eco-Friendly College Campuses.”

Buhl became board chair immediately after the April 28 vote, slightly more than 50 years after Warren Wilson College was incorporated and the college’s first Board of Trustees was formed. She succeeds Asheville resident Joel B. Adams Jr., a longtime Warren Wilson trustee who has twice served as board chair, most recently since January 2011.

Buhl is a senior consultant with Lansberg Gersick & Associates, a family-business consulting firm. She was a founding board member of the National Center for Family Philanthropy and currently is senior fellow to the center and its board of directors.

At Warren Wilson, Buhl served as chair of the search committee that chose Steven L. Solnick in December as Warren Wilson’s seventh president. Solnick assumes the presidency in July, succeeding William S. “Sandy” Pfeiffer, who has been president since July 2006.

In an era of rapidly rising college costs, the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2012 has named Warren Wilson College as one of the nation’s 25 “Best Buys” among private colleges and universities for the sixth time in eight years.

According to the 2012 guide, schools “qualify as Best Buys based on the quality of the academic offerings in relation to the cost of attendance” – or as the book also puts it, “outstanding academics with relatively modest prices.” With tuition and fees of under $27,000 for the 2011-12 academic year, Warren Wilson is rated as “inexpensive” in relation to other private colleges and universities in the selective guide.

In its narrative on the college, the Fiske guide notes, “Success at Warren Wilson is measured not only by grades, but by community service and a sense of stewardship…. [The college] promotes global perspectives, puts students to work on the campus farm, and makes service-learning a central part of the educational experience.”

In addition to giving the college high marks for its academics, social life and affordability, the Fiske guide gives Warren Wilson the highest possible rating for its overall quality of life for undergraduate students.

The Fiske Guide to Colleges, first published in 1982, has been called “the best college guide you can buy” by USA Today. Read more here on a few of the more interesting colleges, including Warren Wilson, in the 2012 guide.

Newsweek has selected Warren Wilson as No. 3 on its nationwide list of “Most Service-Oriented” colleges and universities. In a feature titled, “The Best Colleges for You,” the magazine calls the institutions “the top schools in the nation for encouraging students to give back to the community and spend time in selfless service.”

Newsweek described its rankings methodology as follows:

“To rank the schools and the students that put the most into giving back, Newsweek partnered with Washington Monthly, [which] scoured an exhaustive amount of data to rank universities based on ‘their contribution to the public good.’ Combining data on national and liberal arts schools, Newsweek and Washington Monthly determined which colleges have the most service-minded students, faculty, and policies….”

Warren Wilson Dean of Service Cathy Kramer said, “We are very pleased with our third-place ranking in Newsweek. With service as part of our educational Triad of academics, work and service, we firmly believe that experience in the community not only prepares students for a life of civic engagement, but also enhances their academic learning.

“We appreciate the recognition that Warren Wilson is a place where we value students making a difference in the broader community through their actions. This is a wonderful reflection on our program that offers students extensive service opportunities and on the very special students that come to Warren Wilson to be a part of our culture of service.”

Warren Wilson instituted its first service requirement for students more than half a century ago. Today Warren Wilson students engage in a minimum of 100 hours of service as a graduation requirement, in a program rooted in community action. In many cases, students’ service is blended with coursework and various papers or presentations.

Warren Wilson College senior Madeline Wadley has received North Carolina Campus Compact’s Community Impact Student Award.

Wadley is one of 19 college students across the state to receive the award for making significant, innovative contributions to their campus’ efforts to address local community needs.  Awardees also received a Certificate of Appreciation from Gov. Beverly Perdue.

Wadley, a senior from Birmingham, Ala., is a member of Warren Wilson College’s Service Program Crew and Bonner Leader Program. She has taken advantage of leadership opportunities by organizing and facilitating Kids on Campus; a weekly Big Brothers Big Sisters program; co-leading an immigration workshop; co-leading two alternative break trips to Alabama; and helping move forward the infrastructure of Warren Wilson College’s break trip and service-learning program.

She also has played an important role in the college’s increased commitment to the issue of housing and homelessness by co-leading two Heart of the Issue Workshops; serving as a summer intern and a co-leader of a weekly service opportunity with a local homelessness day shelter; and working with other students and community partners to increase educational, advocacy, and policy work.

The awards were presented at the 19^th NC Campus Compact Student Conference at Wake Forest University that brought together more than 200 college students and guests representing 26 North Carolina higher education institutions.  The compact’s executive director, Lisa Keyne, presented the awards with John  Barnhill, founding director of NC Campus Compact.

The MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson holds two 10-day residencies each year, in January and July. Warren Wilson MFA students and faculty mentors remain in contact by various means throughout the respective semesters. The residencies also feature public readings and lectures by the program’s distinguished faculty.

MFA Program Director Debra Allbery said, “Our program’s strengths lie in the effectiveness of our design, the diligence and dedication of our faculty and the talent and distinguished achievements of our graduates — each aligned with the high standards this program has set for itself throughout our 35 years.

“We pioneered this model, and it has proven both remarkably stable and brilliantly adaptive; it also provides an enduring and deeply supportive community. Our students, faculty and staff all consider it an exhilarating privilege to be part of the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers.”

Founded by Ellen Bryant Voigt, the MFA program began with 17 students and three faculty members in 1976 at Goddard College. The program moved south in 1981 to fellow work college Warren Wilson and now receives about 10 times the number of applications for admission it can accept. Warren Wilson MFA alumni have published several hundred books, and its faculty have won nearly every major honor in the country, including MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, Pulitzer Prizes and the National Book Award.

Teammate Molly Friedland, a senior from Annapolis, Md., was sixth and Michael Flynn, a WWC sophomore from St. Louis, was 13th in the male omnium scores.

The Owls as a team finished second in Division II, marking the ninth consecutive year that Warren Wilson has finished among the top three D-II teams. For complete results from the 2011 nationals go here.

The following Warren Wilson students received prizes for original research: Alissa Gore, first place, and Taija Ventrella, second place, chemistry and biochemistry; Amy Wagner, first place, and Octavia Sola, third place, zoology; Jesse Rickard, first place, and Linden Blasius, second place, environmental science; and Laurel Thwing, second place, botany.

Over the years Warren Wilson students have won more N.C. Academy of Science awards for papers on their research than students from any other college or university in the state. A total of 11 Warren Wilson students presented results of their original research at the 2011 meeting.

The following Warren Wilson students received prizes for original research: Melanie Kemp,  first place, physiology/toxicology/biochemistry; Jessica Schaner, second place, health/ environmental sciences; Alice Sloan, second place, ecology; Camille Taylor, third place, botany; and Laura Lilley, third place, physiology/toxicology/biochemistry. A total of 12 Warren Wilson students presented results of their research at the 2012 meeting.

Over the years Warren Wilson students have won more N.C. Academy of Science awards for papers on their research than students from any other college or university in the state.