A Note for My Students: As you prepare for finals, “Think happy thoughts!”

My dear students, as you begin this RRR week to prepare for finals, I would like to share a story to help put some wind beneath your wings.

When my best friend, Traci English-Clarke, and I were seniors in college, we sat in the corner of the dining room across our plates of chicken lo mein. Periodically, and in an almost rhythmic cadence, we smiled between our mouthfuls and only had one sentence that we repeated to each other, “Think happy thoughts.”

Traci and I were sleep-deprived, living in a suite where one room’s floor and bed were made uninhabitable by a carpet of photocopies for my thesis. I would crawl into Traci’s darkened room and unencumbered bed at 10 a.m. when she woke up to sleep for two hours — -only to get up again to work on crafting a sentence over and over on paper so I could get it right. I had never learned how to write in high school and, here I was a senior at Harvard, making sure that each word mattered. Traci would forego breakfast and sit for hours scouring over datasets, thinking about how parent and teacher expectations affect the educational outcomes of children.

Yes, Traci and I had cried, wailed, and railed against the machine as we had toiled in earlier work cycles. However, as the end was near, we realized happiness was the only way we were going to get to the end of the road.

Happy thoughts were our balm of hope that our efforts would be rewarded. Happy thoughts made us savor every mouthful of sustenance that the dining hall staff has made for us. Happy thoughts were going to make the cold walk back to our dirty dorm room more pleasant and help us be watchful so we would not slip on black ice. Happy thoughts made picking up the work that was left that much easier. Happy thoughts helped us value the effort we were putting in even before anyone else could put value on it.

Traci turned in that thesis and later it paved the foundational work for her Ph.D. dissertation at the Univeristy of Pennsylvania. Traci was my first teacher to indoctrinate me into the education profession. Along with my father, mother and my Professor Chandra, her work was a pivotal and foundational influence in my teaching philosophy. Traci’s continued work in this area fuels how I use educational expectations to effectively and positively influence the trajectory of my students.

My research work on the small stone discs from 3rd century B.C.E. found on the Indo-Gangetic Plain was the first time I was able authentically intersect my eastern values with my western education. When I turned in the thesis, I had festooned the top of the title page with “Om” handwritten in Devanagari because Hindu scholars always start their work with that one syllable prayer. It is a humble acknowledgment that all comes from one source. The accolades and overwhelmingly positive reviews I received for that thesis have given me the steadfast courage to always be true to my values in all aspects of my work and life.

My dear students, as you begin your final studies in your various Spring topics, listen to your 43 year old, gray-haired guide and think happy thoughts! You too will look back at these momentary obstacles as the finest pebbles in your path. Silver linings on clouds never tarnish; rather, they outline for us the brilliance of the sun behind them.

You, my students, deserve to capture the flag and make this world your own. I promise that you will shine in the next two weeks if you fill yourself with positive vibes. The lessons you have learned will be reaped in your application of the knowledge as you carve your professional and life paths — not in your letter grade furnished by a third-party. I am rooting for you and you should be too!

Remember, think happy thoughts!