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At Bates, the Ladd Library reference desk sits right across from the front entrance of Ladd, so Schiff and his colleagues are familiar faces to Bates students \u2014 not to mention friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like any good librarian, Schiff offers students the nuts and bolts of finding stuff, \u201cwisdom on how to research, structure, and write about the arts and music,\u201d said Longsdorf. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Watch the Bates Baccalaureate address by Chris Schiff on May 27, 2023:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n \u201cBut he also has a boundless tender heart in helping students as they sift through challenging subject matter, which as we all know can often illuminate personal challenges in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As he took to the lectern on Saturday, Schiff told the seniors that the topics they\u2019ve researched together \u201chave been mind-boggling, everything from secret societies to sacred poetry to the genetics of the taste of cilantro.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And it\u2019s always been a joy. \u201cI have loved learning from you, and loved even more those moments when you just stopped by to say \u2018hi\u2019 or made sure to wave hello across the lobby even though you were rushing to another appointment.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Schiff and his colleagues serve as reminders that knowledge begins and ends with human connection. \u201cOver the last four years you have paid me the greatest honor that I will ever be paid: You asked me for help when you needed it most, and you put your faith in me that I would help you find the right answer,” said Schiff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his address, Schiff used a line from John Fowles\u2019 postmodern novel, The Magus<\/em>, as his theme: \u201cWhich do you drink? The water or the wave?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI suspect that you thought that getting an education was going to be like drinking water… sensible and predictable,\u201d Schiff said. But of course it was not, mostly because of the tsunami that was COVID.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In high school, when Schiff was asked the water\/wave question, he answered, \u201cwithout any hesitation, that I was going to drink the water.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And he did. \u201cSo long as you ignore the year in the punk band, and dancing in musical theater, and the year on a good old-fashioned assembly line, and the seven or so years washing dishes.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every time Schiff tried to reach for a metaphorical glass of water, “the next step in my planned and logical college career, it was a mirage. It would recede into the distance, and instead I would find myself facing chaotic turmoil: the metaphorical wave.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of the waves that tossed Schiff about are similar to the ones that have crashed into Bates seniors. \u201cLack of money, lack of focus, the need to help family members, a changing world that didn\u2019t seem to value my contribution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, he added, \u201cI had it incredibly easy…. I lived in a world where there were answers to some of the difficulties \u2014 the waves \u2014 that I faced. My deadlines were flexible, so I could wait for my moment. I could call on family and friends for help when I was out of resources. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe wave faced by you, Class of 2023, has been everything I faced plus a multitude of forces much more powerful than any I have ever experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The lesson lies in realizing that \u201cwe don\u2019t get to choose logical progression over chaos,\u201d Schiff told them. \u201cChaos and turmoil are always around us.\u201d Risk takers might enjoy the wave, but as human beings, we can\u2019t survive on chaos and turmoil alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe only answer to the question, which do you drink, the water or the waves, is that we drink both,\u201d he said. Think of baccalaureate as the wonderful moment on the beach \u201cwhen the waves crest and begin to break all around us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRemember this feeling,\u201d Schiff said, and paused for a beat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe wave is and will be here for you and it is the wave that brings water alive. Drink the wave.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s a line from a postmodern novel: \u201cWhich do you drink? The water or the wave?\u201d We plan to drink the water. But then the waves come crashing, says Chris Schiff in his Baccalaureate address.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6306,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commencement-2023"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6307,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6299\/revisions\/6307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2023\/06\/original2.webp\")