نهاية الفصل الدراسي

original

I like to read this poem as reassurance in regard to my university experience. My flawless GPA lost its virginity to organic chemistry in the fall and its irreparable imperfection (however slight) freaks me out every time I look at my transcript. At the end of each subsequent semester I live in fear of causing further damage (and consequently further damaging my chances to attend whatever graduate school I want). I like this poem as it relates to school, but not as it relates to life, because lines 2-5 don't square with my religious philosophy in such context. The poem reminds me that I don't have to kill myself for academic perfection and that what is most important is allowing myself to love what I study. The world is bigger than my academic preferences and all of it is open to my imagination. Though lonely, as a thinking person I will always have a place "in the family of things."

Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine,
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles and the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.