"Voice is everything we are, all that we have observed, the emotional chords that are uniquely ours--all our flaws and all of our strengths, expressed in the words that best reflect us."
Certainly, in this course, we will be expressing ourselves most frequently in words--words to be spoken and heard and words to be written and read. However, we will also learn that voice is made audible not only in words but in our life work. In fact, voice is the core of who we are as human beings, and when we raise our voices we are able to self-actualize by acknowledging the potential and passion that make us authentic. As Frederick Buechner notes, it is even better when we can use "our greatest passion to meet the world's greatest needs."
Were you born to be a pirate? Practice medicine? Love a family? Dance on Broadway? What are you doing when you feel most alive? We must begin to think bigger about who we are as individuals because we are more than our grades, our majors, our careers, and our material possessions or paychecks. All too often, though, our dreams are discounted by systems that reward memorization instead of discovery, obedience instead of freedom, and acceptance instead of expression. Over time, we begin to doubt that we are more than we think we are and can do more than we think we can.
No matter how many hard knocks you have had in life, your essence is still present, and it is our task this semester to discover, re-discover, and affirm YOU. After all, the purpose of education, from the Latin word educare, is to draw out that which is within. Until you know who you are, you do not know what only you can say.
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