The Sky Is Not the Limit
Vincent Chang
Vice-Chancellor and President
Brac University
Orientation Spring 2021
February 27, 2021
Good afternoon. Welcome to Brac University 2.0. Welcome to Brac University X.
Summer 2020 – Worst of Times, Best of Times
In July 2020 last year, at the height of the current pandemic, we started our summer semester online. At that time, I encouraged our students to stay positive. I used Chinese and European stories from the past. The stories tell us that what are perceived as the worst of times can be at the same time the best of times for transformation. Often, the worst times would get the best out of us.
Fall 2020 – That Apple Tree
Three months later in October, it seemed the pandemic would stay longer than expected. So, we started our fall semester, online again. At that time, I talked to our students about adjusting to the new paradigm. I talked about my own story. I also talked about the story of Isaac Newton. Perhaps it’s worth highlighting again.
Because of the Great Plague of 1665 in England that lasted for two years, Cambridge University sent their students home. It’s their version of social distancing. But there was no online learning at that time. Newton was in his 20s. Without any professors guiding him, at home, he continued to work on mathematical problems and later wrote papers on calculus. He observed the light through the shutters of the windows and this led to his theory on optics. And most interestingly, right outside the windows of his home, there was an apple tree. Yes, that very apple tree that led to his theory on gravity. Newton did all of the above during their version of lockdown.
Spring 2021 – Hope and Perseverance
Now, we are in February 2021. The pandemic is still here. Our Spring semester has started and we are still doing online. But because of the availability of vaccines, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. So, today, instead of talking about something in the past, I shall talk about something at the present and forward-looking.
I have noticed two events early this month that are astronautical. First one on February 9th, the first space probe from an Arab country reached Mars. The probe is called “Hope,” from the UAE, the United Arab Emirates. That day, one of my friends sent me a WhatsApp message. I could feel his tears in the message. He was proud to be an Arab and an Emirati.
The second event was nine days later on February 18th. An American space rover called “Perseverance” landed on Mars. This is a big deal, because this is the first time mankind is systematically searching for life on Mars.
And how fitting and encouraging they are. Their names – “Hope” and “Perseverance.” They are fitting and timely not only for a world in a serious pandemic, but also for us here in Bangladesh.
As a developing economy, we in Bangladesh have been overwhelmed by all kinds of development issues, including solving the poverty problems. These are all noble causes. But these shall not be all, particularly to your generation. Why? Because there are more in life that may be too worth pursuing, no matter you’re an Emirati, an American or a Bangladeshi.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Let me share a story that I read when I was at about your age. It’s about a seagull pursuing flying beyond looking for food. The book is called Jonathan Livingston Seagull, by Richard Bach, an American.
Most seagulls fly to only look for food. But Jonathan Seagull does not think it that way. He loves flying and he wants to explore the perfection of flying. This makes him different and unaccepted by his flock of seagulls. He is not even accepted by his own parents.
His father asks him to stop daydreaming and to start practicing catching fish. His mother asks:
“Why, Jon, why? Why is it so hard to be like the rest of the flock, Jon? Why don't you eat? Son, you're bone and feathers!" He replies: "I don't mind being bone and feathers, mom. I just want to know what I can do in the air and what I can't, that's all.”
Because his flock does not welcome him, he is forced to leave the group. Then he practices and perfects flying, beyond an ordinary seagull’s imagination. And at the end he returns to teach his flock how to fly.
In his journey of pursing, Jonatan Livingston Seagull has learned quite a few things. He has learned the importance of being true to himself, being free in his thought, daring to go beyond any physical constraints, imaging beyond what his eyes can see, keep going because successes are short-lived, and being free in pursuing what he loves. The book describes him: “He is not bone and feather, but a perfect idea of freedom and flight, limited by nothing at all.”
But exactly what does he wish to achieve? “You will begin to touch heaven, Jonathan, in the moment that you touch perfect speed. And that isn’t flying a thousand miles an hour, or a million, or flying at the speed of light. Because any number is a limit, and perfection doesn’t have limits.”
So, to Jonathan Seagull, the limit is not in any number, or in the sky, or anywhere else; the limit is in his mind. And this is what I have learned from reading Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
The story conveys a few key massages: be yourself, embrace failures, be curious, and think big. These have been very much consistent with what I have been talking on many occasions, in defining the student life and student experience for Brac University 2.0.
Rocketboy and Fisherboy
You may say: but the story of Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a fiction. Let me share two real stories. First one. In his memoir called Rocket Boys, Homer Hickam recounted his life experience in a small mining town in West Virginia. West Virginia is among the three poorest states in America.
When Homer was young, he had to help his family by working in a coal mine. Every time before he descended into the mining tunnel, he would look up to the sky, searching for his freedom and aspiration. His search and longing were very much like those of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. He later became a NASA engineer.
Second one. When I was at your age, after graduating from the high school and before entering the university, I would go out to the seas with my father in a fishing boat. It was not for fun, but for making a living. My father was the captain of the fishing boat.
We would sail out far to somewhere in the Pacific Ocean and catch fish there for days. Often because of the chopping waters and the bad weathers, I would throw out all I had eaten. With an empty stomach, a dizzy head, in between shifts, at night, I’d lie down on the deck of the rocking and rolling boat and look up to the sky and let my imagination freely fly. Then, I would imagine being Jonathan Livingston Seagull. I would imagine sailing among the stars. Then and only then, the sky was not the limit.
The Sky Is Not the Limit
Let’s come back here, in this room, Brac University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. At Brac University, we are still yet to have a campus. When most people outside talk about Dhaka, they talk about its honking noises, polluted air, jammed traffics, trains of rickshaws and crowds, mosquitos and flooding. In Bangladesh we are constantly facing challenging development issues.
But if we can learn from the recent Emirati Mars mission, that is it’s daring. Because their tone of this mission was to make the impossible possible. And, if we can learn from the recent American Mars mission, that is it’s hopeful and of humanity. Because amid perhaps the deadliest pandemic for the last half a century, they still reached out to search for life, to find possible companions for mankind.
I admit that we, in Bangladesh, do not have as sufficient resources as the Emiratis or the Americans. But if we can learn from Jonathan Livingston Seagull, we know that despite physically being in this room, at Brac University, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, we shall not be limited by these walls of this room, or the city’s boundary, or the country’s border, or even the sky. We shall not limit our imagination or determination. Jonathan Livingston Seagull has showed us: the limit is not in the sky; the limit is in our mind.
I would like to end my speech today with a phrase by Oscar Wilde, an Irish poet: “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
I hope, and I expect, that in this challenging place in the current pandemic, each and every one of you be among Oscar Wilde’s “some of us” who look up at the stars. And if you are and if you do, remember: the sky is not the limit.
And, as the Vice-Chancellor of Brac University, I can assure you that Brac University’s sky will never be the limit.
Welcome again to Brac University 2.0.