Grades are temporary, but memories are forever
This is the opinion of Ethan Roe, SJU’22
Do you remember what your best friend said to you the first time you two met? Or what you learned from your favorite professor in high school? I, for one, can hardly remember what my wife told me an hour ago, let alone what my freshman year roommate said the first time we met.
What I can tell you, though, with absolute accuracy, is the way that they made me feel when I stepped into Tommy 3 almost 9 years ago. I was a nervous wreck, unsure of the decision I made to come to this small town in Central Minnesota and scared to spend a year living with a roommate I hardly knew. But the moment I walked in that room, he greeted me with a warm grin that set the tone for a year and friendship that I will never forget.
Think about the moments that have stuck with you over the years. Chances are, they’re tied to how someone made you feel: respected, loved, humiliated, inspired or maybe even hurt. We remember the sting of a harsh look or the lift of genuine encouragement more than the words that accompanied them. Emotions are sticky.
Now, as a doctoral student in Counseling Psychology, I’m surrounded by technical skills, treatment protocols, and research. But I keep coming back to a simple truth: “people remember how you made them feel, not what you said.” When I feel inadequacy creeping in, or start to question my ability, it is comforting to remind myself that what truly matters isn’t the perfect intervention or phrasing, it’s the connection.
So, my advice to a student is this: the investment you are making in your future is not one to take for granted. Class, homework, and exams are all important and should not be avoided. But they are temporary.
What will last far beyond the quiz, or final grade, is the impact you have on the people around you, and the impact that they have on you.
Did you lift others up? Did you show kindness when it was unexpected? Did you help foster the Benedictine values of CSB/SJU that make this place so special?
Those moments may not show up on your resume but will make a difference in your life more than any GPA ever could.