The Best Part
Written by Hannah Strickland
Looking back, what was the best part of Hillsdale?
We have been asking ourselves this question for a good three-and-a-half years now. If you ask a large cross-section of seniors, you will get answers that cover every area of the Hillsdale College experience.
After interviewing a group of seniors, I realized that there are many more answers to this question than I had originally imagined. For most people, their four years at Hillsdale have been a coming-of-age story. For instance, Kiralyn Brakel, a senior Biology major, said that her most cherished memory of Hillsdale, besides collecting road-kill for her friend’s senior research project, was the moment when she realized she could eat ramen noodles whenever she wanted, however often she wanted. Of course, this is a very unique example, but it illustrates this realization that happened in all of us: we are responsible for ourselves. In other words, we’re becoming adults. While at Hillsdale, we’ve had to make daily decisions that have influenced our lives in various ways. From the decision to eat ramen for all three meals in a single day to the glorious moment when you declare your major, we students move toward adulthood.
Our choices are what make us ourselves. Our daily, and even minute, choices are what launch us from the aesthetic, passive life into the ethical life. The choice to live ethically creates in us the ability to live as active, connected, beneficial members of society. But what, or rather who, is it that had inspired us to make this leap?
One answer to the question that rings true for everyone here, professors and students, from freshman to seniors, is the quotation on the town sign as you enter Hillsdale: “It’s the people.”
This was my first impression of the place when I came freshman year, and I laughed at its cheesiness, as did so many other people. But it’s true. Rachel Heider, a senior History major, said this about the catchy slogan:
Before Hillsdale, I had never encountered peers as charming, witty, and kind as the ones I have come to know. Regardless of discipline, I found that the student body could not only engage each other on the same intellectual level on a variety of topics, but also create and sustain meaningful community off-campus. Apart from innate intelligence, I discovered a great deal of this was due to the professors.
The encouragement everyone finds here in the Hillsdale community challenges us each day to make that leap to the active, ethical life. Our professors have systematically humiliated us and built us back up again. They’ve encouraged us not only to read and study with passion, but also to live passionately. They’ve challenged us to make friendships that will last until we die. They’ve all asked us, in one way or another, to explore what exactly friendship is. Through each relationship here at Hillsdale, we have been shaped like the clay from which we were formed into vibrant, active, intelligent people – adults – who are now beginning to participate in the world outside of Hillsdale.
A senior English major, Hannah Strickland is heavily involved in the music, art, and classics departments. She has sung with the Hillsdale College Chamber choir since her freshman year.