The Monday following commencement is a pretty quiet day on campus, particularly in December when students have hurried home for the holidays, faculty are recuperating from marathon grading sessions, and many staff have taken additional vacation days to extend their time off between semesters. I am getting ready to do the same, actually, taking this afternoon and December 23rd off to spend extra time with family. That leaves me just enough time to jot down a few words by way of an end-of-the-year blog post. We have spent the past 4-6 weeks watching the economic news grow worse and wondering just how serious will be the financial impact on the university. Unfortunately, we have another 4-6 weeks to wait before our new governor takes office and we begin to have more definitive information about this year’s and next year’s budgets. It’s sort of a twisted variation on the whole “advent” season idea, but there it is. This time between terms is a period of waiting – waiting for students to return, waiting for a new semester to begin, waiting to see if once-in-a-generation ice storms can hit three years in a row, and waiting for pictures of the future to become clearer. I wish I had something wise to say about waiting. Instead, I defer to other more quotable notables who have reflected on this aspect of experiencing time in a linear fashion. Perhaps one or more of them will inspire you in one way or another. At least they give you something to read while you wait for something better to do …
- “The person who is waiting for something to turn up might start with their shirt sleeves.” – Garth Henrichs
- “The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.” – Eden Phillpotts
- “You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.” – Winnie the Pooh
- “To stay ahead, you must have your next idea waiting in the wings.” – Rosabeth Moss Kanter
- “Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.” – Thomas Alva Edison
- “Things may come to those who wait…but only the things left by those who hustle.” – Abraham Lincoln
- “Nothing would be done at all if one waited until one could do it so well that no one could find fault with it.” – John Henry Newman
- “He who waits to do a great deal of good at once, will never do anything.” – Samuel Johnson
- “My kids always perceived the bathroom as a place where you wait it out until all the groceries are unloaded from the car.” – Erma Bombeck
- “Let us not be content to wait and see what will happen, but give us the determination to make the right things happen.” – Horace Mann
