I’m a basketball junkie and much of my thought process happens in terms of sports analogies. I was recently watching an interview with one of the best basketball trainers in the world. He specializes in a very select population of extremely talented players that, for whatever reason, never really made it to the “the main show” NBA.
Most of his trainees are young and furiously trying their best with little to show for it. All too often, the players who haven’t made it to the big leagues yet become bitter and upset. The irony is, it’s usually this bitterness and obvious chip on their shoulder which is the exact thing weighing them down and preventing them from succeeding.
To those players, this trainer has one piece of advice:
“Nobody cares, work harder.”
That truly resonated with me.
When I was a young upstart trying to make a mark in the Jewish nonprofit world, I was rejected every single day and at times it seemed like nobody cared about this initiative for Jewish grad students. It often made me upset and bitter, especially when I would get rejected from the big Jewish foundations that didn’t really give me the time of day. But I came to the realization that in life, while we can’t control every challenge, we can control our attitude towards it and make things happen that are positive in our lives.
So I worked harder. Today JGO is an integral part of “the main show” when it comes to Jewish life for grad students.
Similarly, after almost a year of consistent antisemitic intimidation on campus, our students on campus these days have every right to be bitter and upset. Their grad school experience has been tarnished, and they often feel like nobody cares or understands the challenges they are facing except for our fellow Jews as well as our small community of non Jewish friends outside it who supports us.
My message to our students is the same as the trainer’s message to his players:
Bitterness won’t get us anywhere. The Jewish community has never let the opposition get us down and we aren't going to start now. Let’s work harder, roll up our sleeves, and make things better ourselves.
That's the message for this coming semester and what awaits us on campus.
