COLUMN: "Great Expectations"

From David Chun's "The World According To Dave," Fall '92 -- Ralph Waldo Emerson · Every year a new freshman class enters Penn with great enthusiasm. They are selected by the Admissions Office as the best of 14,000-plus applicants. Few will make major contributions to the betterment of society after graduation. Some will complete their education and live humble lives. Others will fail to complete their education at Penn and pursue alternative careers. No matter what destiny has scheduled for these young souls, they all have one thing in common. These new bright stars of Penn are all prisoners of their parents' great expectations. Most of these young freshmen arrive as the top students from their respective high schools. They have been pampered since childhood as the "top students" who will do great deeds for mankind. Some will be the first members of their families to enter college, and will be responsible for raising their parents out of their current economic strata. Others will arrive with their own expectations of manifest destiny. Unfortunately, not all will succeed so easily. Not everyone can be in the top ten percent of the graduating class. One person in the freshman class of 1996 will one day rank dead last in the University's records. Each person in the 1996 freshman class can quickly locate a niche at Penn by first accepting the name of the institution. Usually, the first complaint out of the freshman's mouth is, "My friends think I'm going to Penn State." Benjamin Franklin was not a self-perpetuating egotist who named the University after himself like Harvard and Columbia. So why should the freshmen be self-perpetuating egotists and expect their friends to recognize and worship them just because they are attending a prestigious university located in Pennsylvania? The freshmen will soon discover that not many people care about where they are currently enrolled. They should be humble and take pride in the fact that they are receiving a quality education for the bargain basement price of $22,000-plus. The freshman class should also realize that losing is a part of life. Victories came easy in high school, but Penn is filled with victors. Someone has to lose. As soon as a freshman accepts the fact that he or she is only one bright star among a galaxy of bright star, he or she will finally be free to explore all the true indemnities at Penn. After all, continuous victories only build egos . . . failure builds character. Most students will endure the outside pressures of great expectations and find their comfortable niche at Penn. Still, a few will be unable to handle these pressures and resort to desparate measures such as dropping out and suicide. At some time, the pressures of their parents and friends may become unbearable. In this highly competitive environment, it is small honor to give it your best and be ranked dead last. There is no nobility in losing in an Ivy League institution. There is too much at stake. Many parents have made major sacrifices to bring their sons and daughters to Penn for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. To them, failure is only for those ignorant dropouts in high school. Finally, the freshman class should define what "success" truly means to them. Success does not necessarily need to mean a 4.0 GPA or graduating in the top one percent of the class. These are merely short term goals for life. There are other long-term considerations such as relationships and longevity. For Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, success was to write -- not practice -- medicine. For Mohatma Gandhi, it was to start a social revolution -- not practice law. For R.W. Emerson, success was simply "to laugh often and much." David Chun is a junior Political Science and Psychology major from Miami, Florida. "The World According To Dave" will appear alternate Thursdays.