‘A UNSW Love Letter’ Wise old lady, You have held so many so close to your bosom. Give us today our lessons: on pain and the tribulation of your scrutiny; on the importance of pleasing you; on the fears that eat at us, the shame of not belonging among siblings who excel. Teach us about the grind and the stress that whips upon our backs, that we might better understand the world. Show us the release of mateship found in your societies - cohesion in the midst of the hardship to which we subject ourselves. Tell us that each year when we complete our races at the track and deepen that wound by which we measure our knowledge and success we are becoming more worldly people. Calm us and assure us it is not for nothing. For how bitterly I have trudged from your lecture halls, your laboratories and your tutes. I was another head downturned by the burden of debt and strained hope for the future. But then I’ve also felt the sun on a Friday afternoon. I’ve glanced up and caught the shimmer off Tyree’s stoic chin or witnessed new love on the Village Green, heard the mirth and freedom wafting like perfume from your Roundhouse and become aware that all around me the old are inspiring the young. For what is nobler in life than your purpose: to suckle the thirsty mind on the precious milk of human knowledge? In these moments of clarity I can examine my own fate. My final race is run on Randwick’s hallowed turf. The people with whom I once shared your monotony are a family bonded by shared experience. Anxiety becomes laughter. Poverty is now richness of spirit. I will look back and dream of you, bounteous mother, my Alma Mater, and yearn for my youth, like the grape added to the barrel of wine, that I could once more relive its journey within your wise walls. Your importance I now see: stand strong against the erosive sea of time and the tempests of human short-sightedness, transcend pettiness and remain, as you were meant to be, the flag of human progress. With all my heart, Anonymous
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 15:43:59 +0000
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