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As I sat in eerie Mecosta, Michigan on a chilly October night, listening to my McConnell Scholar family read a ghost story in front of the comforting warmth of the fireplace, I became conscious of a simple, yet life-changing realization: moments like these are why life is worth living.
During my sophomore year of college, life began to feel redundant: wake up, attend class, go to work, tend to your responsibilities, do your homework, go to sleep, repeat. Questions arose in my mind that had seldom materialized before. I began to question what the point of all this was, what made life special or worthwhile, and what kinds of things broke this monotonous cycle. Every day felt like the one before, with a sense of vibrancy unaccounted for. A part of this feeling, no doubt, was loneliness. I felt detached from other people. My life was more centered around responsibilities than relationships. Countless studies have shown that loneliness is nothing new in college students. These feelings of loneliness, in my view, can quite easily lead to young people asking the same kinds of questions about what gives value to life. It is ironic though, isn’t it? Arguably the most digitally linked generation in human history still feels the lack of a vital human need: connection. This connection I am discussing is not the type of connection that can be replicated when you obtain the password for the WiFi, when you receive a message on social media, or when you get dozens of likes and comments on a Facebook or Instagram post. No, the type of connection I am alluding to is the most crucial, yet often the most ignored and undervalued, of all. It is the complete, unadulterated human to human connection.
While I was having these questions as to what gave my life meaning, I attended a seminar hosted by the McConnell Center, featuring the extraordinary Dr. Jeff Pollett. While contemplating Wendell Berry and his thoughts on community, he started to discuss the issue of loneliness commonly felt among undergraduate students and how generation after generation has searched for the answer to what gives life value. In his eyes, and now in my own, the answer is simple: community. However, this doesn’t necessarily have to mean community in the traditional sense of a small town or a small segment of a more widely populated area. It can simply be a communal feeling of belonging among two or more people. This most basic need can be felt most strongly at different times, depending on the individual. Nevertheless, for each of us, it cannot be replicated through fraudulent imitations of true human connection, such as social media posts or FaceTime calls. Sharing a cup of morning coffee with your spouse, playing with your children on the living room floor, divulging a recent heartache to a close friend: these are all examples of vital human to human connection, but these are connections we often sacrifice in favor of their deceitful and unfulfilling counterfeits.
In Dr. Pollett’s wise words, when our lives are filled with these types of moments and connections, we don’t have to question what makes life valuable; it becomes clear that life inherently has value. His words began to satisfy my desire for an answer to what made life worthwhile, but they had not come to fruition in a way that enabled me to fully discern how to experience this in my own life. A few short weeks after Dr. Pollett’s visit to the McConnell Center, several of my fellow McConnell Scholars and I headed north to Mecosta, Michigan to visit the home of Russell Kirk and to gain a deeper understanding of his life and work. The trip as a whole was incredible in so many ways, but the night before we left was when I experienced something I will never forget. I sat in a circle, surrounded by my fellow scholars and the McConnell Center staff. For the first time in what felt like forever, I listened to a story read out loud to me. In that moment, I was in the presence of those who I felt at home with. I was with those who gave me a sense of belonging. In that moment, Dr. Pollett’s words began to echo in my mind and his lesson came to fruition in my life; these are the moments that make life worth living.
Madelin Shelton is a McConnell Scholar in the Class of 2022. She is studying political science and philosophy at the University of Louisville.