President Wilson, Trustees, Faculty, family, friends and fellow graduates, I am honored to speak to you on this very important day.
First, I’d like to thank the administration and faculty of State University for their hard work and dedication on our behalf. I think that college students often take their college experience for granted, as just the step between high school and the real world.
As the first member of my family to graduate from college I do not take one bit of it for granted. So I thank every one of you who has made this university what it is and every one of you who has supported me and my fellow students along the way. We have gotten a great education here which makes it far more than a step between high school and the real world but rather a stepping stone to our futures.
On a personal note, being the first college graduate from my family, I would like to honor my parents in the audience who encouraged me and supported me and without whom this would not have been possible. Thanks Mom and Dad!
Fellow graduates, today we have finished something. Sometimes I think it is ironic that in each endeavor in our academic lives we learn and grow and achieve the highest level possible in that institution and then we graduate. The next year we are thrown back to being low man on the totem pole in our next school.
Even now, we are graduating seniors and this summer or fall many of us will be starting at those entry-level jobs that will be the beginning of our careers and some of us will start graduate school, once again on the bottom rung of the ladder. But this time the opportunity exists for us to just keep climbing, like it is an endless ladder to heights we have never achieved before. And if it is that way, I urge you to make sure that you are on the ladder you truly want to be on. Remember that it is YOUR LIFE.
Carl Jung said, "Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes." So, today I remind you all to look into your hearts and be awake before you agree to a dream that is not your own.
Up to this point in many of our lives, most things have been decided for us. From now on, it is up to us to choose. I say make a choice when you are fully awake, a choice that is informed by your heart and not by what others say or think or believe.
Our contribution to the world will not be measured by the money we make or the accolades we receive but rather by the way in which we share our unique gifts with the world. And the only place to find those gifts is within yourself.
So go forth class of 2011 and make your unique contribution!