So another year is beginning at N.C. State. The CHASS majors are busy preparing their notebooks and minds for intellectually stimulating class conversations, the engineering students are buying their calculation paper in 500 packs hoping they won’t need any more for the entire year, design students are unloading their heavy but ultra-powerful Macs and carrying them to their studios tucked away in scenic East Campus.

As I watch people moving back to Raleigh, buying their books and connecting with their on-campus organizations, I can’t help but notice that there seems to be a divide between us all in our respective colleges. A distinct “to each his own” atmosphere.

Just like every other year I am currently busy setting goals for myself, much like the rest of you. Like the beginning of every year, I am writing a list of things to accomplish, including making all A’s and initiating contact with my dream graduate schools.

While I hate to admit it so early in the game, I can already tell you that I won’t do 90 percent of the things on my list. I will rationalize that getting mostly A’s is OK because there is always that one hard class in which everyone makes a B. I’ll put off graduate-school connections, thinking that everyone waits until after they graduate to start looking anyway.

So what is something that I can do this year to develop myself — something to make my college experience more than just a series of classes that I took to convince an employer that I’m good enough to be hired. This year, I’ve consciously decided to go outside my comfort zone and my own set identity. Let me explain.

This year I want to take classes that have nothing to do with what I am hoping to do with my life. I still have the gigantic course catalog that was imparted to me at my freshman orientation. Every time I see it I can’t help but ogle at the almost endless things available for me to study. I see classes like ARS 258 — an arts studies course that focuses on mathematics and models in music. It’s somewhat connected to my current course of study but would open up a whole new world for me to explore.

I also find classes like REL 408 — a study of Islam in the modern world. While unrelated to anything I am studying, this class would be extremely useful in providing a better understanding of the world around me. There are so many classes here; each guaranteed to catch the interest of somebody.

There is no doubt that another year is beginning here at State. The campus traffic has increased dramatically, and Mitch’s is once again filling up on Friday nights. But maybe this year will be a little different somehow. I want to challenge you all as I am challenging myself.

During this first week of classes, think about getting outside of what you know. Audit some completely unnecessary classes in another college. It’d be great to see writing classes filling up with interested engineers, and computer science courses speckled with future anthropologists.

Maybe we will see design students taking a vested interest in modern economic fluctuations, and a few future CEOs exploring the meaning behind architecture. As an eternal Dead Poets Society fan, I am reminded of the nearly immortal speech given by Robin Williams’ character, John Keating, concerning arts and life.

The speech points out that business, medicine, engineering and law are all noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life but aren’t necessarily what makes life worth living. The point is that there is more to life than any one pursuit, any one calling. Take some time this weekend between that Friday night trip to Mitch’s and the inevitable Saturday night trip to somewhere on Trailwood. Go ahead and look through the wealth of classes available to us and find something that interests you. I challenge you to expand your education this year with the goal of developing your entire self and our learning community.

How do you plan to seize the day? E-mail your plans to [email protected]