As a college professor for over 30 years now I have had the great
fortune of having many, many wonderful students, and countless enriching
intellectual exchanges with those students in our class, my office, the
hallway, and over coffee or lunch. Some of these students were, as young
people tend to be, brash, noisy, and arrogant; students who truly took to
heart Disraeli’s comment that “almost everything that is great has been
done by youth.” Others, like the author Mike Rocque, were more
contemplative, naturally accustomed to thinking before speaking, but
who when they did speak were carefully listened to. Mike was one of
those students that all college professors have at one time or another who
have a quiet intensity about them, a stillness that suggested both great
thought and great humility toward those thoughts. He was also a
student whose immense talent was brought about by hard work, one
who believed that a good paper was not simply written, but revised and
rewritten many times. As a student and as a young professor, Mike was
the paragon of hard work, self-discipline, and responsibility toward one’s
work. Not surprisingly, like all those who think that their success, if it
comes at all, is going to depend on work rather than natural brilliance,
Mike lacked self-confidence.