My Last Argus Article: The Training Ground, Not the Pinnacle

“Well I stood stone-like at midnight suspended in my masquerade…”

This is my 35th and final article for The Wesleyan Argus, but I won’t be delivering a Springsteen-esque sermon or one of those classic senior “goodbye columns.”  Let’s face it, I’m not Washington Post columnist George Will. I haven’t been writing columns for generations. Rather, I am simply a steward for a 158-year-old publication. 

As the Opinion Editor of The Argus, my job has been to bring ideas forward—especially the importance of academic freedom and viewpoint diversity—to compete in the marketplace of ideas on campus. The Argus doesn’t exist to pontificate. It is meant to serve you. 

So here’s what this article won’t be about: No shoutouts to close friends (sorry Avi, Carlos, and everyone else). No makeshift commencement speech. No typical student diatribe against President Michael Roth ’78 or University policy (what happened to the nets on the top row of the tennis courts, though?).

Right now, you are probably thinking this article sounds like a pitch from George Costanza: An article about nothing. So let me avoid Costanza-ing you all and give you a word of advice to take forward.

Ask questions.

Too many of us accept the dogmatism of those around us as gospel. But progress is not made by consensus. It’s often made by challenging it. Otherwise, we would still believe that the earth was the center of the universe, or the Wright brothers would have never left the ground. 

Every graduation season, college seniors flood to TikTok in tears and reminisce about their time at college while ABBA’s “Slipping Through My Fingers” plays in the background. These videos are based upon the premise that the college years are the pinnacle. As an optimist, I reject this idea. Wesleyan was not the pinnacle, it was the training ground for something better.

Wesleyan was the place where we learned to critically think, heard from a diverse set of perspectives, and discovered how we can be better citizens. 

Leaving Wesleyan may be bittersweet, but the goal was never to stay forever. 

Now we put what we learned to use.

“Oh, oh. Growin’ up.”

Blake Fox is member of the class of 2026 and can be reached at bfox@wesleyan.edu.