This past Saturday evening was probably one of my more interesting nights in recent memory, but, then again, I have trouble remembering where I was last week. I had traveled back home for the one day of the year I go to church and spent most of the day watching my mom do my laundry while I attempted to determine how high I could throw my dog (she’s a Yorkie).

During the third cycle of Sports Center, my buddy Austin called and wanted to hit the bars. Now, Austin is little bit crazy, even by my standards. Austin is also fresh out of rehab.

Austin: “Ready to get blackout?”

I guess that therapy really paid off. Now, if I were a smart man who possessed any kind of restraint or foresight, I would have considered the risks of taking a recovering drug addict out to the bars. But seeing as my discretion could be described optimistically as “poor,” I readily agreed.

I arrived at Austin’s place and found him in his basement main-lining tequila like it was an Olympic event. I hung out for a while, and we swapped college stories. He told me an especially funny one about how a friend of his managed to get roughly 20 people’s attention in a Wendy’s drive-thru at 2 a.m. so they could all watch him throw up. These moments, kids, are why you stay away from drugs.

We left his place and went to a jazz bar to meet up with a couple friends of ours. We sat down and immediately began pounding as if it’s Prohibition and the Feds are on the way. I looked around the room to find it packed with more mock turtlenecks and fedoras than a Gap ad. The guy next to me at the bar ordered Pinot Noir. I hated everyone.

I took about thirty minutes of this before Austin and I decided to visit the pubs down the street. We walked into a favorite bar of mine and beheld one of the strangest scenes I can remember. It was as if everyone from my high school and grade school decided to have a class reunion and not tell me. There were literally 20 people I had known in the past at this place. I had never seen so many rounds purchased in my life.
I spent most of the night catching up with people I hadn’t seen in years. It was awesome. Some of them were doing well. Others had put on weight. It’s quite difficult to recognize a girl you used to hang out with when you have to peer through an extra 150 pounds.

I talked to a lot of people, but every single one of them I talked to shared a common theme. They were all either at University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, Western Kentucky or another in-state school, and none of them liked it. They would rather go home than return to school. I found this very weird because I love Vandy and can’t wait to go back every time I leave. Not to trumpet my ego (because that’s what I really need…), but for one of the few times in my life, I felt admired. People looked up to me when I told them what I was doing and where I went to school, something I never get in Nashville.

As I was going home that evening, I couldn’t stop thinking about all the people I had met and how they treated me. Now I know a lot of you come from prep schools that churn out Harvard and Princeton kids, so attending Vanderbilt may not seem like much of an opportunity to you. But trust me; the vast majority of the world did not go to prep school. The vast majority of the world doesn’t go to a Top 20 university either.
We have an incredible opportunity here at Vandy to not only enjoy college, but to use the knowledge we gain to better our world. I know it seems like you’re fighting for yourself when you’re at school, but you’re not. You’re also fighting for all the people who don’t have the same opportunities you do. The next time you think that the world’s got it out for you or things can’t get much worse, just remember the people you have known that have not been as fortunate as you are. Then go out and accomplish something not just for yourself, but for them. You may be surprised, but they look up to you. I promise.

P.S. I haven’t been to church in a while, so this may sound stupid, but is the host supposed to burn in your mouth?

Andrew Solomon is a senior in the School of Engineering.