The Sunday Eight O'Clock/The Test
THE operation had been a serious one in which life and death had hung in the balance. It was over now, and the boy who had lain white and still stirred uneasily, struggling to come back from the far away country of unconsciousness in which he had been wandering. He opened his eyes once or twice and looked about vaguely. Presently he recognized the face of the physician bending over him and spoke.
"Is it all over, doctor?" Was it worth while?"
"It is all over, Tom," the older man replied gently, "and it was very much worth while. You stood the test, and you are going to be well and strong soon."
It's a question we ask often, when we have been through a struggle or a mental or a moral or a physical trial, and it is a question I have no doubt many of you are asking as you come to the end of the college year or the college course. It has cost father in many cases more cold cash than he could well afford, and it has cost mother some heart aches and no little sacrifice I guarantee, and it has cost or is costing you some struggle of one sort or another and some of the best years of your life.
Has it been worth while? That depends.
"I traveled a straight road when I was a freshman" I heard a '17 man say a few days ago, "but I've learned a few things this year, believe me." But as I listened unwillingly to the vulgar detail I knew that the money was wasted, and the time lost, and the years not worth while.
What is the test? It isn't always high grades; I've known a lot of decent fellows who flunked Math. 9 or who couldn't get by Chem. 13a, and one of the worst bums I ever knew made an honorary society. It isn't always college activities, for sometimes when he gets a place honorably he goes to sleep at the switch. It isn't popularity, for often "good fellow" is only another name for vulgar sport.
This year or two years or four years of college,—what has it done for you; how has it changed you? Has it brought you friends, an increasing love for things that are clean and wholesome and beautiful, a broader and a kindlier outlook, mental discipline, ideals, character? When you go to the work of your life next week or get off the accommodation train at the little country town where you were born, is it with greater courage, and cleaner morals, and higher ideals, and increased possibilities of success? If so, you've passed the test, and college for you has been gloriously worth while.
June