Everyday we tell ourselves things: words to live by, bits of wisdom we’ve heard before, the things our parents told us—still tell us today.  We tell ourselves what we need to hear to persevere, to lead, to succeed, and to sometime just simply be okay.  Bits of wisdom circle our heads like bat moths gathering around a ceiling fan.  We pluck a wing and remind ourselves of a truth we already know.  We tell other people things too: like breathe, or this is supposed to happen, or we make each other laugh, which is another kind of wisdom.

Last week I got to thinking about these things.  As the orientation drew to a close for the spring 2011 semester (the 25^th group of students who have embarked on this wild journey), I was thinking about what words I wanted to share with them to inspire them to preserver, to lead, to succeed and to just simply be okay, in the months to come.  And I realized the words they needed were not my own, or at least not only my own.  So, I embarked on another wild journey: I attempted to collect one single piece of advice for the S11 semester, from each member of the Cape Eleuthera Foundation.  Continue reading →