By Marilynda Longoria
Pulse Staff Reporter

Up until a month ago, my life was not worth living, and I didn’t even know it.

Four weeks ago I was railroaded into joining Palo Alto’s team for the Ethics Bowl. It is a competition where college students take the teachings of philosophers and apply them to modern dilemmas. It was in this setting I was introduced to Aristotle and by association, Plato and Socrates. Socrates believed that “the unexamined life is not worth living. "

In response to such a revolutionary thought, I decided to get involved with my life. Self-reflection seems like a passive process, but like a doctor my examination became a means to a cure. My disease was one of complacency. I had been letting life happen to me for too long. For me, the temptation to go through the motions of college life without getting truly involved was too great to resist.

I peered into the mirror and didn’t like what I saw. I excelled at mediocrity.

The Ethics Bowl became my crusade for self. I decided it was time to throw myself into the academic fray and battle my demons. Risking failure, I’ve thrown as much of myself as I’m willing to expose into this ethics competition.

Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick, once said, “He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great.” I want success, but I’ll take greatness.

By the nineteenth of November, I may be on my way to greatness or to Cincinnati. On November the eighteenth at St. Mary’s University, Palo Alto’s two ethics teams will compete for a chance to advance to Cincinnati and the national level. At the regional level, we’ll have to beat out such schools as St. Mary’s University, Southwest Texas State University and Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. If we advance, we will be competing nationally against such four-year universities as Dartmouth, Baylor and St. Mary’s. Although the ivy at Dartmouth has probably been growing for longer than Palo Alto has been accredited, we’ve done well. For the last three years, Palo Alto College has gone on to compete in the nationals as an unexpected force to be reckoned with.

As one of the few, and at times the only, junior colleges competing against larger four-year universities, Palo Alto pulled the rug out from under such institutions of higher learning as St. Mary’s University, Texas A&M-College Station and even Southwest Texas State University. How did we do it? By being easily understood and plain speaking.

“The year we took first place over Southwest wasn’t because their arguments weren’t as sound as ours. They just forgot their audience and threw too many philosophy terms around,” said John Hernandez, faculty adviser to the Ethics Bowl.

Although in recent years there has been at least one returning member to the team, this year’s team is comprised completely of new members. Fortunately, being untried does not automatically guarantee us a place on the path to greatness. Five women and four men combine in surprisingly complementary ways to form Team A and Team B.

Team A: Sean Walker’s persuasive eloquence adds to his value as speaker. Meanwhile, the outspoken natures of Lisa Crawford, Jennifer Davis, Priscilla Orneales and Otto Montes demand lively discussions. From those discussions grow well thought out arguments that have taken all points of view into consideration.

Team B: Unlike Team A, Team B has elected to have two speakers. Herman Lira and Rosa Gonzales will share duties, while Sam Cromley and I work diligently with them behind the scenes to achieve well-scrutinized answers that can withstand all foreseen attempts to undermine them.

For the past four weeks, Team A and Team B have practiced as one, making good use of our divergent personal views to simulate possible rebuttals. As the eighteenth and our opportunity for greatness looms, it has become necessary to strengthen our individual identities. Whether it turns out we’re preparing for success or greatness, our commitment won’t have been in vain. We will learn from this experience regardless of the outcome and emerge individually stronger for having attempted the feat.

In baseball, they call it swinging for the fences, and Babe Ruth’s World Series winning homerun has earned its place in history. Success cemented his greatness, but his greatness began with his failures and his ability to transcend them. When he struck out at the plate, he didn’t content himself with bunting for a safe base. He worked though his failures to the successes beyond them, and ended up at bat that day at Wrigley Field.

Stop giving life only what energy you think you can spare and instead give it more than you think it needs. Your efforts will not be in vain. Success can bolster a sagging confidence and replenish the energy required to achieve it. You won’t waste unnecessary time and energy justifying your failures if you can honestly say you failed wholeheartedly.

I have examined my life. My truth is this: surrounding myself with different people and difficult tasks doesn’t complicate my life, it enriches it. Look at your life. What changes would you like to make within yourself? Walt Whitman once wrote, “Whatever satisfies the soul is truth.” Greatness or not, I’m satisfied. Are you?