<p>As far as I can tell, in about five days - and assuming she makes it through exams - unalove will graduate from the University of Chicago and go on to doing whatever it is she is going to do next.</p>
<p>Anyone who has used this forum over the past four years owes unalove an enormous debt of thanks. Researching whether to apply to Chicago, deciding whether to enroll there or elsewhere, picking a dorm or a major, or even just enjoying the "sound" of one's own on-line voice (like, um, some of the adults here, or at least the author of this post, sometimes) -- unalove was always there to help. Reading any one of her long, nuanced, comprehensive, honest posts about things like housing or fun would tell you more about the University of Chicago than you would learn in most visits. Reading two of three of them . . . it is the next best thing to being there, really being there, not being a tourist. Her deep love and enthusiasm for the University infuses every post she makes, but never made her into a mindless booster. She has always taken care to be clear about what people who disagree with her might say, and to acknowledge what is special about other places as well as Chicago. It's hard to imagine a more trustworthy and effective champion. </p>
<p>Everybody seems to credit Jim Nondorf and the Common App for the exponential growth of Chicago's applications, but I think it's unalove's doing. Who wouldn't want to go to the college she describes? Who wouldn't want to have fellow students like her?</p>
<p>(That's not to disparage the contributions of any of the other Chicago students who post here regularly. No other college on CC has such fair-minded, expressive, and generous student posters, at least none whose forums I ever read. Well, maybe MIT comes close. Chicago is really blessed with great people, at least so far as the CC evidence goes. But even in that group, unalove stands out, and has lead the way.)</p>
<p>In real life, I suppose maybe she can be cranky and mean sometimes, but the online unalove never, ever, ever is. The volume of pure niceness and generosity is a constant inspiration, and a standard hardly anyone ever meets.</p>
<p>I have never met her, but I know to a moral certainty that her world and that of my kids overlap to such an extent that she can probably put names to almost any anecdote I have ever used about Chicago students, however many identifying details I tried to leave out. (From the standpoint of statistical probability, she may BE my kid.) There are dozens of times when she could have made that blow up in my face, but she never has. For that discretion I owe her huge personal thanks.</p>
<p>She hasn't told us what she is doing next week or next year. It's a tough, tough world out there right now for humanities graduates who aren't going to grad school or who haven't devoted their lives to promoting a job for themselves somewhere. But I am completely positive that she is going to contribute in a big way anyplace she turns her attention, and that the qualities and skills that make her valuable in this forum will make her way more valuable in the real world.</p>
<p>So -- please join me in congratulating unalove on completion of her college career and in thanking her for giving all of us so much of herself.</p>