If I Were You, What Would I Do?

This is the title of an address given by Gordon B. Hinckley to the students here at BYU, but I really love it and I think that it applies to everyone in this particular stage of life. I thought that I would share it with you because it really spoke to me.

My aunts asked me to go to the Marriot Center to buy some ski tickets for their boys. On my way back from purchasing said tickets today I was walking merrily along on the bridge between the MC and the rest of campus when suddenly, for the first in a very long time, I realized how beautiful Brigham Young University is and how lucky I am to be learning and going to school here in Utah. I am not going to complain about being in college anymore or being behind because of my mission. I am going to LOVE these last few semseters and have the time of my life.

I looked out over campus and just had to smile. I love this place. No matter how hard it is to feel successful and important here sometimes, no matter how stressful classes can be, the bottom line is: This is an incredible time in my life and I need to be happy and make the most of it because it will soon be over. That is true for all of us in this phase of life.

If I were you, what would I do?

I'd enjoy every day of my stay

On this campus of Brigham Young U

"What a unique and beautiful place this is! How rich and wonderful are your opportunities!...

These are golden years. Do you know what alma mater means? It means dear mother, with all of the best that that connotes. You are here as a much loved part of her family. Enjoy your days, every one of them, and, when you leave and the years pass with the cadence of the seasons, may you look back with fondness and smiles to happy times on the magnificent campus of your beloved alma mater."
 

If I were you, what would I do?

I'd drink of the nectar of knowledge,

A great, full draft of its richest brew.

"Never again in all of your lives will you have an equal opportunity to learn so much in so brief a period of time. The marketplace into which you will go with your skills when you finish here will be fiercely competitive. It will demand of you the very best that you have to give. You are here to learn so that you might go forth to serve. I know that at times it's a grind. I know that it becomes exhausting. I know that it can be terribly frustrating and discouraging. But it also can be so wonderful and so fruitful....What a tremendous blessing it is to be able to study--to sit down with a book, to shut out the world around you, and to concentrate on the ideas that move before you as you read sentences and paragraphs and pages, the essence of which becomes a part of your ever-growing store of knowledge."

 

If I were you, what would I do?

I'd walk humbly with God and my Savior, too.

     "It is your opportunity, yes, it is your responsibility while here, to cultivate a spiritual dimension in your lives as you train your minds in secular matters. Every student in this great and unique university may come to know--in fact, he or she has the obligation to come to know for himself or herself--that God our Eternal Father lives and that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior and the Redeemer of mankind."

 

If I were you, what would I do?

I'd fall in love with a girl named Sue,

Or a boy named Lou,

And plan for the day we'd be married, We two.

 
     "Keep yourselves clean from the stain of the world. Keep yourselves neat and attractive and trim. Keep yourselves worthy of the best to be had. You will find none better than those on this campus. Keep yourselves worthy of marriage in the house of the Lord. There is no adequate substitute for it. Let the stars of romance dance in your eyes and fever of love touch your brain. But keep your feet on the ground and discipline your emotions with the knowledge that the God of heaven who loves you invites you to the greatest of blessings for time and all eternity, but that he also exacts a price if they be yours."
 

If I were you, what would I do?

I'd live with my love with integrity true--

And welcome our children, many or few

     'If husbands and wives would only give greater emphasis to the virtues that are to be found in one another and less to the faults, there would be fewer broken hearts, fewer tears, fewer divorces, and much more happiness in the homes of our people.'

If I were you, what would I do?

If courtship and marriage didn't come through?

I'd fret, but I'd say, "There's no time to stew.

Get busy. Find something important to do."

     "There are some who, for reason unexplainable, do not have the opportunity of marriage. To you I should like to say a word or two. Don't waste your time and wear out your lives wandering about in the wasteland of self-pity. God has given you talents of one kind or another. God has given you the capacity to serve the needs of others and bless their lives with your kindness and concern. Reach out to someone in need. There are so very many out there...The world needs you. The Church needs you. So very many people and causes need your strength and wisdom and talents. The time you are spending in this university is a tremendous investment. It can be planned in such a way as to yield satisfying dividends in the future.'

By now I'd just say, "Good-bye and adieu,"

With a prayer in my heart for each one of you