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March 28, 2024

  • Visiting Author: Sheila Squillante
    Last week, the visiting author, Sheila Squillante, presented the art of creative non-fiction at BGSU. Last year, her memoir came out. From Chatham University in Pittsburgh, PA, Squillante visited BGSU, last week. Previously, she has published collections on poetry, but most recently, her memoir, All Things Edible, Random and Odd  was published in 2023. “I […]
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Spring Housing Guide

Intelligence, curiosity gives confidence, pushes one to move forward in life

I have always been considered intelligent.

My teachers as far back as I can remember talked about how bright I was. Later, my high school teachers would talk to me about how I was wasting my potential in being so academically lazy.

My friends, my family and my acquaintances have all said something about how smart I am at various times in my life.

In my hardest times, my true trials, I held on to my intellect and tried to not let it get stagnate. I have always felt like the smartest person in the room.

What has this gotten me?

It has given me confidence to go back to school and succeed where I once failed miserably.

What else has it given me? It has given me a thirst for knowledge that is ceaseless.

What else you ask? I will tell you: an arrogance and sense of grandiosity that hurt me in countless ways. I have alienated many with my overbearing nature.

I cannot blame them; insufferableness is not fun to be around.

So why am I telling you this?

Why am I sounding haughty?

Why am I admitting to this personal foible? The answer is our fair University.

I began graduate school in fall of 2011 and I soon found out that so many of you, my fellow students, are flat-out brilliant.

To state that my professors are on another plane goes without saying, but it is you, my fellow Falcons, that have really humbled me.

I find the mark of true intelligence to be the ability to look beyond Door One, to really perceive.

I have that ability and sometimes I can even look behind Door Three and Four. I have met those that go way beyond this. As I sit in class, the library or my graduate lab, I am truly gob-smacked by the absolute intellectual power being put before me at times.

I find this beyond fascinating, frustrating and curious.

I am fascinated because these people, almost all younger than I, are so dedicated and smart.

I have to wonder: was I that poor of a student or is the level of education they received so far superior to what I received? I am frustrated because I am not used to being behind the intellectual curve that often.

It is a new, complex, and weird feeling.

Yes, I am not the class dunce. I am still intelligent with much to offer any discussion.

I just am not used to being at the end of the line in this way as I find myself at times.

As for curiosity, I wonder if I am that far behind and what can I do about it? Is this a fleeting feeling or an unreal one? Is this a momentary crisis of confidence? The answer is probably all of the above.

This sounds like a column filled with boasts, whining, low self-esteem, questioning and self-loathing.

I assure you it is not.

These great minds around me at times bring me down but mostly they uplift me. I am marveled by you smart, young people.

Take it from the old man here: keep cultivating your mind, never waste a moment to learn and cherish this university atmosphere. It truly is like no other.

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