Four years ago something strange started to happen to me.

I was walking to class and I passed by a mockingbird singing, and it reminded me of a Bach prelude… But then the grackle recording started squawking and I moved on.

I was sitting in Invertebrate Biology one day learning about nematodes, and an old Pete Seeger song about loving things that are a little strange came to mind. Then we started talking about tapeworms, and I moved on.

I was laying beneath a tree, listening to the wind blow through the leaves… and I realized that this passage in Aristotle’s Metaphysics about how trees are constantly growing and staying the same is the best description of how DNA replicates and mutates I’d ever read. 

Now, I really want to be a doctor when I grow up, so I had to figure out what was going on with me. Why was I having such strange thoughts at such odd times? What could birds have to do with Bach? Then, I realized.

I was having… Paideia Moments.

Paideia moments, for those of you unsure whether you have been afflicted, are those special moments when something clicks, when something connects, and two seemingly unrelated ideas come together and start having a conversation.

So, I was having Paideia moments, and they seemed to be getting worse. They got closer and closer together as time went on, and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what the cause was.

It could have been something in the air, some pollen released by one of the Mountain Laurels.

It could have been something in the food. I’m partial to the President Burger with an Egg on his face in the Cove.

I might have gotten them from one of my class mates, one of my professors, maybe even someone in the administration was responsible for these Paideia Moments.

The truth is that its everything in this place. All of the buildings and the history and most especially all of the people. I have had four years of Paideia moments, four years in which I became the person that I want to be, and four years that have prepared me to become someone even greater.

 Because when you have one Paideia moment, and another, and another, and another than the minutes become days and years and before you know it you have in your possession an Southwestern Education–and what makes a Southwestern Education so special is that when you have been given the ability to connect anything, you are prepared for everything.