“Learning and Life Are Not Linear”

DIANE BONDAREFF

All of you in the Columbia College Class of 2026 have both made — and have been made witness to — History, with a capital “H.”

And, facing forward, I imagine more than a few of you have recently heard some variation on the question: Where do you see yourself in five years? In 10 years?

It comes from every direction — families, potential employers, advisers, friends. It is not an easy question to answer. There are many ways to reply, depending on the context. It could be with a heavy sigh and a stare, “Don’t talk to me now.” Or maybe, in an interview, you have that planned response to demonstrate how one dot connects to another. You are experts on that perfect narrative. Maybe the question — Where do you see yourself? — comes in a late-night conversation and doesn’t demand an answer. Instead, the free-flowing conversation — full of dreams, what-ifs, anxieties, insecurities and grand ambitions — is the point.

Maybe, your answer is, “I don’t know.”

You are no doubt tired of hearing it, but it is OK not to know.

Be assured that what each of you has done thus far, as well as what we have done together — the education you have received here inside and outside the classroom — was not designed to send you down one predictable path, to one answer. That’s not how the liberal arts, or life, works.

This is not to say that some of you won’t pursue further education or careers in the fields you’ve studied here. Some of you have discovered passions that will sustain you for a lifetime. It’s just that both learning and life are, more often than not, not linear.

And so for everyone — whatever your level of sureness or uncertainty about the future — the only way forward is by walking through the door in front of you.

A few weeks ago, I gave this very advice as part of a senior lecture where I was invited to talk about lessons I’ve learned in my life and career. I shared how my academic path began only as I admitted the absence of passion behind my pre-med plans and when I conceded that this body was not built for the hoop dreams that defined my teenage years.

Eventually I gathered enough confidence to follow the questions that moved me. And I kept finding new questions that compelled me further, often to more questions. But also to opportunities. I took each as it came. I walked through the doors in front of me.

As you sit here today, Class of 2026, your next door lies outside this campus.

We have not taught you everything you’ll ever need to know.

However, we have prepared you for today’s world. It is complex, changing and unpredictable. And you are ready for it!

You are graduating with the knowledge and habits of mind to walk into any room; to apprehend, participate in, and — yes — lead the discussion; and to influence its outcomes to positive ends.

You have learned to think across boundaries and different perspectives — to listen and debate, compare and synthesize — in ways that are constructive and generative. All essential skills at a time when questions are rarely confined to a single field, and where context and nuance are often ignored.

You have cultivated your own voice and core values — what some refer to as your “why” — and sense of what it means to do good work. I don’t mean “good work” in the form of a grade or award received. Rather, good work as in doing your best, learning from mistakes, building a life of impact and purpose, both personally and professionally.

You are leaving Columbia having built communities and forged connections for a lifetime.

You have experienced what it means to be in community, living and learning with others in the shared space of this campus — with people whose backgrounds, convictions, experiences and aspirations differed profoundly from your own. This is not light work. Being in community in this way will, no doubt, mark the rest of your life.

Certainly, Columbia College is not your only community, now or ever. You will claim and be claimed by multiple communities of all kinds for your entire life. This world demands people who are able to engage with and learn from the competing claims that it makes on each of us.

You are ready.

It has been my privilege to share this Columbia journey with you. I have every confidence in your abilities, and that as you walk through the doors in front of you — today and in the years to come — you will shape the world that you want to see.

Josef Sorett
Dean of Columbia College and the Henry L. and Lucy G. Moses Professor; Vice President for Undergraduate Education; Professor of Religion & African American and African Diaspora Studies