I like dictating my pen to write on notebook-bound paper –writing about subjects I believe in. I always finding it easier tocritique than to construct.

TodayI would like to construct, to build on something that we usually takefor granted. We are university students and we really have no ideahow lucky we are. Lucky that the autumn leaves fell to the right andnot the left and that the wind blew north instead of south.

That you were born here instead of there.

For those of you coming into the university, I’ll bet half of youwill not graduate. Be it by choice or by fate, you will not finishwhat you started. It is to you that I write — those who have juststarted or need to be refreshed — for today you are a universitystudent.

I am proud of attending San Diego State University. It is an honorto be part of this university.

But it wasn’t always like this. Back when I first arrived here, Ihad no idea SDSU was known as the world’s largest community college.With an admissions GPA of 2.0, everybody got in.

Things have gotten better. The average GPA of incoming freshmenseems to be about 3.5, and various school programs have receivedspecial recognition. The International Security and ConflictResolution major (which is only offered in California by SDSU) andthe entrepreneurship program, which ranked in the top 10 in thenation, have given SDSU much-needed prestige. We have come a longway.

The key to success at SDSU is involvement. Believe it or not, theuniversity experience is not just reading your required texts andtaking exams. If this were the case, everything would be done throughthe mail or Internet. The university is a place to exchange culturesand ideas — a place where only a select few seize the opportunity toparticipate. Go to the International Coffee Hour on Fridays at theInternational Student Center; attend mass in the Catholic NewmanCenter; join the prestigious pre-law society; drop by and listen inon a session of the Associated Students Council. Get out there andget involved! You have a lot to offer this university. Not doing sonot only deprives you of achieving your potential but it deprives theuniversity of you.

Study abroad.

I have yet to meet a student who has gone abroad and not enjoyedthis amazing opportunity and experience. Most people I have talked tohave told me that going abroad has been the best decision, not oftheir school life, but of their entire life.

You don’t have to be an International Business major to studyabroad. Go out and enjoy life. Let your university experience expandyour culture and your mind. Once you do so, things will never be thesame. You’ll be able to see things from the outside looking in.

The point of contention between finishing and not finishing yourdegree cannot be attributed to one sole factor. This is evident. Yetthere is a certain notion that is quite prevalent in today’suniversity student. The difference between living in the present andliving for the present. There is a very clear distinction betweenboth schools of thought that must be made. To live in the present isto acknowledge your surroundings — to know where you stand and toknow that while today is important, it is but a means to an end.

The other side of the coin is to live for the present, to live asif the now overshadows everything else. To live for the present is tomake the means more important than the end. To put it intoperspective, placing tonight’s fraternity party or trip to TJ beforestudying for an exam. Do not worry about partying; you’ll have enoughtime for it later. Just look at your parents. They’re still doing it.While the opportunity to have fun will always be there, theopportunity to finish college will not.

Finally, remember that the world is always in motion. It will notstop for you or anyone else. So things did not work out the way youplanned them. Deal with it. Learn to adapt yourself to a situationwithout conforming yourself to it. You find yourself today in a veryspecial situation, so make the most of it. No obstacle or problemwill ever be stronger than your will and determination. Never forgetthat it is not the university that makes the student, but the studentwho makes the university. SDSU: it’s what you make of it.

–Ricardo Arias is a junior double majoring in philosophy andinternational security. Send e-mail to daletter2000@hotmail.com

–This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of TheDaily Aztec.