Third place alumni essay

The other day, my husband and I, joyfully kidless, found ourselves sitting in Worner Center reminiscing about our days spent on campus nearly a decade ago. Reading the most recent publication of The Catalyst, we nodded at the articles that reassured us that some things never change, when my eyes were drawn to motion outside the window. I looked up and was immediately reminded of what it is to study on the Block Plan.

Walking on the sidewalk toward the student center, a young man clad in a ball cap and jeans held open a large book that riveted his eyes and his attention. I pointed him out to my husband; we watched as he glanced up from his book just enough to open the door. I nodded in his direction and I said to my husband, “Now, that is studying on the Block Plan.”

It was a Saturday evening, and this young man, obviously engrossed in his subject matter, had been too busy to eat anything until he sauntered over to grab a bite at Benji’s at 7 p.m. He took his nose from the pages long enough to order his food, then sat at a table where he could continue to read unabated.

I would have loved to have had the nerve and the time to interrupt his reading and probe into what it was that he was studying. I would have loved to have heard him, engrossed in the topic and immersed in the subject, run through a litany of ideas and concepts and theories that were so fresh in his mind, he would hardly be able to contain his enthusiasm. I know what happens to someone who is involved in a subject of a Block Plan course, and I know it would have taken hours to discuss and debate all that had found a way into his head.

I, of course, have been unable to completely abandon that mindset of intense focus, and I find myself still diving into subjects, authors, and topics with a fervor that scares many of my friends. A discussion among CC grads about practically any topic frequently has left me apologizing to wide-eyed guests at our parties who never may have had a chance to deconstruct an idea quite the way we passionately do at times. I explain it away as a “CC thing,” and it is. There’s something unique about intense study: once you’ve spent time thinking and discussing at such a level, it cannot be easily abandoned.

After four years of training my mind on the Block Plan, I still intensely investigate and invest myself in everything I do. All aspects of my life — further academic study, marriage, motherhood, friendships, and writing — have been subject to intense scrutiny. I understand the sentiment of Socrates that “an unexamined life is not worth living” — since CC, I can hardly imagine living any other way.