Vincent’s Blog

In everything I do, I want for that thing to have significance. My decision to come to Austin Peay, I wanted it to have a significance. The people I know and organizations I join; I want it to have significance. I want what I do in life to really matter.

So deciding to come to Austin Peay will have significance in everything I do. I decided before I set foot on campus that I wanted to give of myself. In less than a year of being here at Austin Peay, I truly hope that I have made my significance and will continue to do so. Austin Peay has already given me more than I have paid for.

I did not always have this clarity when it came to wanting to have significance at Austin Peay. It took a poem from my 11th grade English class to help me figure it out. This poem not only helped me figure the significance I wanted to leave at Austin Peay, but everywhere else. So I end this blog with that poem. It has been a great inspiration to me, and hopefully you can get something out of it too.

What Will Matter
By: Michael Josephson

Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.
Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
Yours grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear.
So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It won’t matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end.
It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Even you gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought but what you built, not what you got but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned but what you taught.
What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.

What will matter is not your competence but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone.
What will matter is not your memories but the memories of those who loved you.
What will mater is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident.
It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.

So finals are now over and I can not be so excited. It has been a great first semester with many more semesters to come. My grades are where I want them to be. As much as I miss my bed in Memphis, I am also missing my bed at APSU. I am counting down the days until I return to APSU. As much as I want to spend time with family and friends, I also miss my new family at APSU. Over the break I will spend time with family, friends from high school, and mediaion. I just hope I do not gain a lot of weight over the break, freshman 15 is no joke. I will be hitting up the Foy Center as soon as I get back from break. I just got a feeling I will not be the only one hitting up the Foy Center trying to loose the weight from break.

For some reason I have been doing a lot of thinking about my high school alma mater. It says, “There are things in life we treasure as the years go swiftly by. Good times, good friends, and special memories fill our hearts with pride. May the lessons that you taught us and the truths exemplified. Bring you glory now and ever…” I know that this alma mater does not just pertain to high school, but to everything else that we do. Let us not forget the things we should truly treasure over this holiday break.

Happy Holidays and New Year.

Veni, vidi, vici is a famous Latin sentence spoken by Julius Caesar in 47 BC. Caesar used the sentence as the full text of his message to the Roman senate describing his recent victory over Pharnaces II of Pontus in the Battle of Zela in Zile, a town of Tokat city in contemporary Turkey.

The first of many semesters is over at APSU. I have done many things in one semester, but no words can describe the things I have accomplished other than Julius Caesars quote, “Veni, vidi, vici.” Translated in English the quote means, “I came, I saw, and I conquered.” So here are a few of the things that remains me of this quote:

I came

fresh out of high school.

to Tennessee’s biggest kept college secret.

to Austin Peay State University in Clarksville.

to a new beginning of what life has to offer.

I saw

doors close from leaving high school.

doors open up from going to Austin Peay.

new friendships that will last a life time.

the lows of being sick and still going to class.

sleepless nights from studying.

the highs of getting involved.

the best of what APSU has to offer.

I conquered

homesickness.

exams.

tests.

trials and tribulations.

adversity.

the impossible.

my first semester as a freshman in college.

Crossing over from high school to college can be whatever you decide to make it. My transition was not easy, but it was not hard. The transition from one way of life to another will not always go the way we want it to, but it is what we make of it. I was homesick for the first three weeks. Being so far away from home and not being able to come home when I wanted to was different for me. Even though I hung out with some of my friends from Memphis, I was still empty on the inside. It was after I started getting involved with school activities and organizations that I felt better. I began to meet new people and learn new things. I did not hang out with my friends from Memphis as much; I was not trying to abandon them, but rather expanding my friends at APSU. The best way I can explain my mindset was, “If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it is not always a duck; it could be AFLAC.” I thought school was a duck, but it turned out to be AFLAC, which is even better. I did not see college the way other people saw it because I was still homesick, but after I got involved I saw college ten times better. I went home for fall break and thanksgiving and wanted to come back to Austin Peay. I felt like a guest in the house I had grown up in for 18 years. Austin Peay is now my new home and will be for the next fours years, or even more if I decide to come for graduate school. So if you do not take anything else from what I say, take this GET INVOLVED. It will not only make the school better, but it will make you better more than you know. I can say this from personal experience. I have crossed over to Austin Peay, come join me and share the Peay Pride with me.