Graduation - An Ending, a Beginning

With the reputation I've developed over the last four years, the cynic in me questioned why "they" didn't rig it so that someone else gave the baccalaureate address. I've embraced the idea that the personal is the political, and I've missed no opportunity to put in a word for peace, or a call for the end of domestic violence, or to raise awareness that drug addicts and alcoholics are sick people, not bad people. But yesterday, when the podium was mine for three to five minutes, the concept of unity seemed to me more important than any other I might talk about.

I told a friend I would blog my speech, and I'll try to do it in such a way that the reception as well as the delivery is present. Let's see how I do:

(The Director of Academic Affairs calls me up as recipient of the Baccalaureate Academic Achievement Award - something given in lieu of valedictory status when graduate, four-year and two-year degrees are conferred at the same time.)

Thank you, Dr. Mino. And thank you, my family - my husband, my incredible four teenage children, my mother, and the dear, dear friends who are with me here and in spirit today. And thank you, Class of 2008. You are my family, too.

We have come to this common place today in many different ways.

Some of you have come in the traditional way, straight from high school, from families where it was assumed that you would get an education that would form the foundation of your career.

Some of you have come because your children are growing or grown, or you seek an education so that you might be better able to provide for your family, or you’ve maybe wanted to enrich your own lives and expand your experience. Even when you’ve known that you’ve had your family’s best interest at heart, you may have felt selfish about the time you have had to devote to your studies.

Some of you have come because you’ve been downsized out of a job, or, like me, have disabilities which makes it hard to do the jobs you were trained to do. You may have felt frustration at having to take algebra all over again, or to write an essay for freshman comp.

(Exclamation: "Yeah!")

If you’re a non-traditional student, you may have felt uncomfortable and out of place around so many young people. If you’re a younger student, you may have felt at times that you were sitting next to your mothers and fathers in class.

(Titters of laughter)

Sooner or later, hopefully, we’ve all discovered that we are peers, regardless of our differences. We share a commonality, and today, we all wear the same caps and gowns, and we’ve all taken classes together and learned a new language that includes such terms as “gen eds” and “OPRs” and “drop credits.”

(A guffaw or two!)

We’ve had opportunities to study together, to join clubs and organizations together, to play laser tag together, and to sit and talk about our lives outside these halls together. We have participated, and it is my hope that we will continue to participate, to become part of in our jobs, our communities, and in our families. What we’ve learned from books and in lectures is only a portion of our education. That we are part of a larger world, and that we have a place and a purpose in that world is something I hope we will never forget.

Though our majors might be in the helping professions, in business or in wildlife, in information technology or a mixture of these and others, we have all shared the experience of being part of a small, intimate college campus where we are privileged to be more than just a name on the rolls. We are truly blessed to be leaving not a college today, but a family.

(This is the point, I believe, where I’m supposed to offer some encouraging words for our futures!)

I encourage us to think of the days and weeks and semesters culminating in this day as a starting point for our education, not as the end result.

I encourage us to think about our experiences and remember that the people who teach us are at least as important as the things they have to teach us.

I encourage us to remain teachable, even though we may be breathing a sigh of relief that this time is now behind us.

I encourage us to look at this very brief period of time as something that has shown us just how much more we have to learn.

Lastly, I encourage you all, as Henry David Thoreau would have, to “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” The best way I have found to do that, the only way I have found to do that, is to put one foot in front of the other, and to keep on keepin’ on!

Congratulations, Class of 2008. Thank you for being part of my family!

(My apologies for not properly citing Dylan in the above!)

Till later...