What does Aristotle have to do with Disney’s Little Mermaid?

This last week was hell week for all those who have summer ambitions. Let me clarify…those who have worldly ambitions of the internship kind. St. John’s offers a summer stipend, called ARIEL, for students who want to seek summer internships in any discipline. A tutor framed the acronym to mean “Award for Relating Intense Education to Life.” So when you go down to the Career Services Office you see the picture of the little mermaid posted on the door. Well, the common chatter these days is about the upcoming Ariel deadline. Last year, as a sophomore, one of my close friends secured himself an internship with the Kansas Symphony Orchestra; he transferred to the Annapolis campus, and I think he finally decided on studying music composition after St. John’s. Seeing my friends solidify their interests and future career plans not only gladdens me but also makes me somewhat nostalgic. I am reminded that people here at St. John’s have such diverse interests. ‘Kwak’ (the nickname I gave to my best friend) is applying for a summer internship reserved for Johnnies by an Alumnus who is now doing research in a biomedical lab, while my other good friend, Mr. Winget, or as I call him “Winget”, has decided to intern with our Director of Laboratories Bill Donahue. Winget is looking forward to earning a PhD in Mathematics, and he is currently working on a website that so far features breakthrough propositions of Euclid, Apollonius, Newton and Isaac Barrow. His project, still in progress, is way more ambitious and elaborate than my simplistic summary. I, for my part, applied for a summer fellowship that provides the resources for undergraduates to pursue research in the Humanities. I have received an offer from Princeton and Cornell, but still waiting on Yale. So it goes, juniors are all asking themselves the question that is comfortably delayed being here at St. John’s, that is: What am I going to do after these four years of intellectual indulgence? Well, cultivating the mind is an option, but Aristotle phrased this problem nicely at the end of the Nichomachean Ethics, contemplation can only be afforded by meeting all other worldly needs.