Often we see the common threads that connect stories in Colby. Sometimes it takes readers to make the connections for us.

That was the case for the summer issue of the magazine, which included the cover story on Jeronimo Maradiaga ’09J, who succeeded at Colby by overcoming hardships at home in the Bronx. The issue also included an essay by Richard Whitecar ’75 detailing his post-Colby experience with bipolar disorder. Maradiaga, a Watson Fellow currently traveling the world studying different definitions of success, was faced with poverty and homelessness early in life; Whitecar was on track for success when, just after Colby, his illness derailed him.

I admit I was puzzled when I read the first letter from a reader linking the two stories. But then the commonalities became obvious. Both are stories about Colbians who overcame adversity: Maradiaga, by pursuing his goals despite overwhelming family pressures; Whitecar by coming to terms with—even finding contentment in—his life with mental illness. But the pair has more in common than that.

What Maradiaga and Whitecar possess is the courage to reveal themselves and their problems to a community marked by accomplishment, especially as represented in this magazine. The pages of Colby are peopled with scientists and novelists, academics and activists, investment bankers and accomplished athletes. References to poverty in this magazine usually are in the context of efforts to assuage it; references to mental illness are more likely to be about trying to treat this malady, not live with it.

Of course, Maradiaga and Whitecar aren’t the only alumni who have coped with disadvantages. They are just two of the relatively few who have been willing to admit to their college community that, at times, their lives have been marked with struggle and stress.

So if you haven’t read their stories, please do so. And also read the letters in this issue of Colby. Both contain lessons for all of us. As letter writer Tony Burkart ’71 points out, success is about more than the bare fact of accomplishment. Burkart quotes the old saying, “It’s not so much about being dealt a good hand, it’s about playing a poor hand well.”

Gerry Boyle '78, P'06
Managing Editor