Why are you here at this school, working so hard, getting a chunk of paper that says you have earned…..what exactly?  You have pulled all-nighters.  You have made the deadline only to have the plotter fail to deliver by pin-up time.  The colors looked great on the screen, but the print came out muddy.  Model pieces kept failing. The curve you got right in Rhino didn’t come out correctly when you tried to make it in thin bass wood.  You’ve cut your finger with a dull blade too many times to remember.  Blood was shed.  Your blood was shed and your heart split wide open.  You’ve been humiliated in front of your peers. Professors have leaned back in those creaky chairs propping up their egos as they dressed you down.  You thought to yourself, “what pompous assholes,” but that didn’t fill the empty spot that was carved in your soul.  

You have doubts.  You wonder what makes you special? What makes you different? What gives you significance? Come to think of it, why are any of us here?  This is a scary thought.  When you get this point and ask this question you find yourself in nothingness. Asking this question out loud in your mind you discover you can scream and it doesn’t matter.  The words, whether whispered, spoken or shouted, just go out into the void with not so much as an echo.  And here you stand, alone in this void—defiant or depressed it makes no matter. 

It is here, out of this listless emptiness you find this nagging thought we are here to do something.  There is a thought that is quieter than a whisper, yet inescapable in this emptiness.  You are here to make a difference.  You know—you…know—this is not how things should be. You know the world is messed up and it should be better.  There is this nagging thought that won’t let go.  Are we supposed to be so out of synch with nature?  It’s like everything we do destroys the life around us.  Our living brings their dying. To exist is to destroy.  To build is to destroy.   

But does it have to be this way?  Is our existence only consuming or can we give back instead of taking all the time?  Does our existence have to rob the earth of its resources?  Does the exhaling of our lifestyle have to batter the fragile balance of this spinning globe we live on?  Do we have to be at odds with everything and everyone?  Peace seems so fragile, so illusive.  Why don’t we give up?  Why don’t we quit?  We keep going because we think it is achievable.  Peace with the earth.  Peace with our neighbor.  You haven’t lost hope and this is what drives you on.   

A rebuttal comes from the emptiness.  Is this just millions and millions of years of evolution lying to me?  Is this thought, is this hope, is this motivating dream just a product of evolution?  Is the nagging thought that we are better together, the thought that we stronger by being in synch with nature, we are stronger working with our neighbor just something lodged in my DNA?  Perhaps.  Perhaps there is no meaning beyond survival of the fittest.  Perhaps these nagging questions, these thoughts, these urgings are nothing more than instinct formed by random chance over millions of years.  Or, perhaps there is some deep meaning to all of this.  You will never know in the way we are taught and told we can know.   

It is at this point you have to make a choice.  The simple fact is you are here, now, standing on the edge of emptiness, the edge of uncertainty, the void of not knowing.  Be brave and face it.  You are here….wherever and whatever “here” is.  You are standing on something. You have your bearings, your wits about you.  You can choose to let go, give up and fall into the abyss.  

Or you can choose to continue. You can choose to continue bravely asking your questions.  You can choose to do something with what you do know…or think you know.  You can bravely share what you think you know and humbly yield when it’s clear you don’t.  You can step forward into this darkness and fog.  You can step forward with this one thought—I am here. I am here and my existence makes a difference.  You can be brave and embrace the thought that not only does your existence make a difference, you are here to make a difference.  You can be brave and step forward in the confidence that the world is messed up and somehow your existence at this time, in this place gives you the opportunity to make the world a better place.   

Do this!  Step boldly into your existence.  Make your mark and make if for the better.  Make your mark for the betterment of this world.  You have chosen a vocation of optimism, of change, of hope.  You are here to build something.  Something that wasn’t here before.  Something that improves this world.  Build something that works with earth’s wonderfully fragile and rich eco systems.  Build something that is just and fair in the way it is designed, funded, fabricated and operated.  Build something that brings people together. Build something that celebrates the beauty of our incredible diversity: our colors, our cultures, our backgrounds, our foregrounds, our histories and our futures.   

Wherever you find yourself—drawing details, checking change orders, correcting spelling, crafting an email, or designing the next masterpiece to be lauded by the press—work with all your heart and wisdom knowing this simple fact—you…are..here…NOW.  You are here to make your mark, to contribute, to make the world better not worse.  You are here so that your actions say, “See!  This is how it can be better.  This is how it should be.”