I was 18 years old when I heard the best advice that I’ve ever heard. It was at a presentation by a famous aviator — General Chuck Yeager. A person in the audience asked Yeager how he was able to be a test pilot for so many different airplanes, a decorated fighter pilot and the first to break the sound barrier. After a few seconds of thinking, he said, “Early in life, I figured out that the difference between cockiness and confidence is… ability.”

As a student at UR, you may not recognize it, but the education you are receiving is not a generic set of rules and guidelines that will get you through life. The education you are receiving is teaching you the skills you need to solve any problem or issue that faces you in life. Any college or university curriculum can teach you physics, biology, English or statistics, but the unique curriculum in which you are taking part teaches you those lessons, as well as lessons in responsibility and dedication. The decision to choose these classes is not spoon fed to you like it is at most colleges. You have to take responsibility to fulfill your cluster and major requirements. That takes skill and dedication.

The quicker you recognize the “ability” that you are developing, the quicker you will develop the confidence that all alumni of UR have — the confidence that tells professors that you deserve an “A,” the confidence that tells employers that you deserve the job, the confidence that will get you very far in life.