Being both an alumnus and an employee of St. John’s gives me a unique perspective to look at the college, the Program, and the college community (or “polity,” as we like to call it). Every time I see St. John’s from a new vantage point, my love and appreciation for it grows.

I can credit St. John’s with the place where I am today in life. And not just because I work for the college, either. The education St. John’s provides is truly one for life, one that will shape your life from here on out. I think I would be a much different person now without the way St. John’s shaped my mind, heart, and soul. How many colleges do that?

My mind was shaped by St. John’s, or I could rather say that it was opened by my time and my education here. St. John’s teaches its students to reject the idea that there is one right answer, one true reading of anything, one perspective of the world that is worth considering. Of course, some of the topics we study here (science and mathematics, the theory components of music) deal with phenomena that are objective, material and measurable, so for some questions in these topics there can be a “right answer”. That said, perspective still defines how we look at these things. For a literal example, think of the phenomenon of parallax error (the error that occurs due to incorrect positioning of the eyes while taking a reading on a measuring scale). Even measurable, observable phenomena can look different depending on where you’re standing.

The more general, metaphorical way to understand this is that no subject is free from being influenced by the viewpoints and life experiences of the authors writing about it. And at St. John’s, we read about every subject we study from a range of authors with a range of backgrounds and viewpoints. This influenced my way of thinking for the rest of my life. It taught me that the perspective I instinctually think is right is not the only one that is valid, and I should look into what others think about a topic, and why they think it before I make a hasty judgement. This is a seemingly rare way of thinking in a world where people often yell at each other on social media—asserting their own views but not genuinely listening to each other.

St. John’s also taught me to keep an open mind and be willing to learn new things about different topics, even if my instinctive reaction to them was “I’m not good at that” or “I’m not interested in that.” Because of the curriculum where every student studies every topic, St. John’s did not allow me to specialize or refuse to study things that I found difficult or uninteresting. I left feeling enriched even by those experiences I hadn’t been eager for, and knowing going forward that it was worth taking opportunities to learn even about things that don’t initially grasp me or things I’m not especially good at it.

The soul is a less tangible thing, and so it’s more difficult to point to visible ways a soul can be affected by an experience. Still, I will insist that whatever character a soul does have, mine was shaped anew by my time at St. John’s. I don’t feel like I am the same person, on that level, that I was when I started here. And I like the person I am now a lot better. I thank St. John’s for that.

I think St. John’s has also affected the way that I am at my job and would have even if I didn’t work for them. The curriculum here, and my participation in it, gave me a unique ability to process information that I did not have before coming to undergraduate education here. The way that I sort through, prioritize, and interpret information that I am given in the course of my daily work is, I think, a definite artifact of the way I learned to do so at St. John’s, interpreting readings and learning to understand them, convey my understanding to others, and ask questions where I was unclear.

I also credit the St. John’s community for shaping much of the way I connect with other people. I have never been a person that finds social connections particularly easy. At St. John’s, it was easier—the easiest I’ve ever found it. There are several reasons for this. The first one was the commonality the Program gave us all. No matter with whom you were trying to strike up a conversation, if they were a Johnnie and so were you, then you had something to talk about. Either you were reading the same thing, they were reading something you had already read, or you were reading something they had already read. From there, it was easy to move on to talking about other shared interests, such as clubs and groups or intramural sports or interests outside of class, personal interests in research topics or media.

In conclusion, I think my education at St. John’s has had a critical effect on the person that I am today, especially the ways that I interact socially with others and the ways that I process information. With these skills being so essential to what I do every day, I credit St. John’s for enabling me to be in the place in life that I am now.