Senior Speaker: Sociology

A message from the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences:

Each year, our graduating students in every major select a student to speak on behalf of their area of study. Because we are a large college, the time allotted to our ceremony does not allow for each speaker to appear on stage. However, these speeches have been recorded for your viewing pleasure. 

At its core, our College supports open and free inquiry and debate about the most weighty and consequential subjects that face us all. Each student was given a minute to speak on whatever topic they think will be meaningful to their peers. Some of the contributions are lighthearted, others are serious, and some may inspire some people and conflict with the values and beliefs of others. But that is the nature of free inquiry and debate: it should challenge us and make us think. We are proud of every one of our graduates, whether or not we agree with the views they express here. 

Transcript: 

I used to think I had a sixth sense for people. Turns out, I was just really good at The Sims 4.

The Sims gave me a bird's-eye view of a world I could control: zoom out, rearrange lives, delete pools with ladders. I felt I wasn't managing a world from above, rather I was inside one.

That's exactly what sociology did to me. It taught me to look at the things we're trained to call "personal": our goals, our insecurities, our choices, and ask harder questions. “Who decided this was normal? Why do some people spawn with a tutorial and a head start, while others get dropped in on the hardest difficulty with no explanation? Why are certain dreams called ambition, and others called delusion?”

Our aspirations aren't random. They're shaped by what we see rewarded, what we see punished, and who gets to set the rules in the first place. And here's the part nobody warns you about: once you see that, you can't unsee it.

Sociology didn't just make me observant. It made me responsible. Because when you can zoom out, you stop asking "What's wrong with me?" and you start asking "What's wrong here, and what am I going to do about it?"

We don't get to pause real life. But we got something better: each other, and the tools to actually understand the world we're walking into together.

So go build something. Not a perfect life, but a purposeful one. You've got the cheat codes now. Use them.