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I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the time has come for my final blog for the McConnell Center. As a senior about to graduate this May, this doesn’t seem possible. I think I’ve learned over the last four years that what people say about time flying really is true.
When I first came to UofL, senior year seemed like a far-off problem of sorts. Moving from a rural Kentucky town to the big city fresh out of high school presented so many new challenges and experiences that I could hardly think about what it would be like when this season of my life came to an end. But it is here, and graduation is creeping closer and closer by the day. The emotions I’ve felt about this have ebbed and flowed, with some stronger on certain days than others. Excitement, sadness, and nervousness have all made their presence known. While my emotions have felt like a conglomerated mess at times, the one feeling that rises above the rest is gratitude.
Over the last four years at the McConnell Center, I have made the most amazing memories with some of the best people I’ve had the privilege to know. The McConnell Center is known for many things: prestige, reading and thinking about great works of literature, a distinguished speakers series glittered with former presidents, current Supreme Court justices and the like, international travel for its scholars, and on and on it goes. Unsurprisingly, and admitting some of my own vanity here, many of these characteristics were what drew me to the McConnell Center in the first place. I am grateful for all of these experiences, and I recognize what a privileged position I have been placed in thanks to nothing else besides the McConnell Center. But I am most grateful for the relationships and friendships that I never saw coming.
Whenever I talk to any friends or family back home about the Center, the prestigious components of the program are, understandably, what they ask about. This makes sense – especially given the background I have of being the product of generations of economically disadvantaged farmers, and suddenly being thrust into rooms with national and world leaders. I enjoy talking about these things and try to articulate what I’ve experienced the best way I know how. But what I can’t articulate well is the sense of community I’ve found here and how much that sense of community has impacted my life.
Yes, meeting individuals like Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett was an incredible experience. However, when I look back at my time in the program, my fondest memories will not be of events like this. My fondest memories will consist of late nights at our yearly retreat where my fellow scholars and I talked the moon to sleep, of finding a kindred spirit and dear friend in my fellow senior Alli Wade, of spending three hours in Ekstrom Library with sophomore scholar Caleb Aridano doing much more goofing off than actually working, of bonding with McConnell Center Director Gary Gregg over our shared affinity for coconut cream pie, and so many more than I have the time to list here.
When I first came to UofL, due to some issues going on in my personal life, I was an intelligent but overwhelmed 18-year-old who severely lacked confidence. Thanks in part to the support and development provided by the McConnell Center, I can now say I am confident in who I am and what I am capable of. I know that doesn’t sound like a big deal, but for those who know me personally, that is huge. And it absolutely would not have been possible without this program.
I owe so much to the McConnell Center, and as I am about to embark on my next chapter in life, I hope I am able to give back to it a fraction of what it has given me over the last four years.
In true McConnell Scholar fashion, I am going to include a quote from famed Kentucky author Wendell Berry:
“A community is the mental and spiritual condition of knowing that the place is shared, and that the people who share the place define and limit the possibilities of each other’s lives. It is the knowledge that people have of each other, their concern for each other, their trust in each other, the freedom with which they come and go among themselves.”
What an honor it has been to share this place with these people, to be concerned for each other, and to trust in each other. To my fellow scholars I have known, both past and present, and to the McConnell Center staff for your unyielding love and support, I cannot thank you enough for everything you have given me these last four years.
Madelin Shelton is a McConnell Scholar in the class of 2022. She is studying political science and philosophy at the University of Louisville.