Below is my Commencement speech for tonight as I am awarded my first college degree: Associate of Arts in Communication. What a blessing to have worked for this accomplishment and earned it!!
The Process
The real measure of
one’s life is not decided by any single accomplishment, but in the culmination
of decisions and events which lead up to it.
Standing here in the robes of this accomplishment of graduation from Lehigh
Carbon Community College, we must not focus on the letters after our names, but
on the development of standards garnered amid
the process of acquiring these letters.
It is not easy to
succeed at anything which takes an investment of time. I returned to college at age 48, thirty years
after I began. Thirty years is a very long semester break! I have lived a lifetime in various
professions already. But my learning process had been incomplete
until I stepped forward - -back into this theater of learning
where the reward is not a paycheck or, for that matter, a grade. The reward is the acquired acumen and insight
that comes from weathering the storms that accompanied these past two years; to
have arrived on this day,
remembering the journey and reinforcing why I began it.
And as for storms – there certainly have been more than a few …
For example, when I
first took my Compass test for mathematics at Donley Campus, the proctor
offered me a calculator. I looked at her
very sincerely and asked, “What’s that for?” After decades of ignoring all but the most
simple, essential mathematical applications, I had spent the previous three
weeks cramming with a retired Lehigh University math professor. He taught me how to do Algebra longhand, on paper. So, I looked at the proctor and I refused the
calculator. Well, luckily, the longhand
paid off and I made it into Intermediate Algebra - which I needed to
graduate. However, when I arrived in my
first week of classes, my co-students were tapping away on their calculators
figuring out equations faster than I could turn the thing on! Yes, it was humiliating and humbling and more
than a few tears were shed, but ultimately, perseverance, along with help from
John in the Tutoring Lab and Ed Dolack, won the hard-fought battle to survive
the process; and that gave me my best reward.
Also, I learned to use a TI-86
pretty well!
Life offers us
choices. Between these choices, we encounter what I like to call happy and tragic accidents. The happy ones, like falling in love, are inspiring
and enlivening and seem to make the rest of our lives easier. But the tragic accidents, like losing a
friend to the irresponsibility of a drunk driver, give us pause about what is
really important in our lives. This is
where choice comes in. What is really important to you? And how do you live your life so that what is important to you is
truly honored?
When I ask these
questions, I’m not asking about favorite sports, music or websites. I’m asking about what is in your heart. I’m
asking about your dreams for
yourself. I’m asking about your sense of
purpose – what you can give to the world that is uniquely yours.
We all have dreams. We all
have been children with hopes for our future.
Don’t forget this part of you.
You are meant to do something good in this world – if even just one thing
that changes someone’s life, or gives someone their sense of worth, or makes one person feel that someone cares. Don’t doubt the power of every word, deed or intention
you have. Every great invention or act
of humanity begins with someone’s single thought.
We’ve made it to
this point in our lives – where important choices about whether to continue the
educational track or to go into the workforce matter. They matter because whichever you decide, the
chances are you will stick with it for a number of years. Perhaps you will decide to take a year off
before you pursue your Bachelor’s degree, or maybe you have a master plan all
mapped out already. There is still time
to decide, but you must decide. Your decisions will mark the footprints left
behind you. Between the happy and tragic
accidents over which we have no control,
these footprints are yours to determine. They are what you
have something to say about. Choose what
is important and choose wisely.
The author of The
Alchemist, Paulo Coelho, has an
interesting take on Wisdom. He relates that
“Knowledge only becomes Wisdom within the
framework of transformation.” In other words, we
must be willing to be changed by the knowledge we acquire; allowing it to
organically integrate, so that one day, when the need arrives, we have it
at our fingertips without effort. This,
my friends, is at the heart of real education.
Letting the knowledge of all the experiences you’ve had here at LCCC and
throughout your life, transform you so that you learn decision-making,
leadership, patience, endurance, humility, gratitude, compassion and commonality.
In all things, you
are not responsible for the outcome of any situation; however, you are
responsible for your effort. That effort is your process.
I’ve found one
prevailing way to insure that I can accept and
even embrace this process no matter how hard it is. In times when the tide seems to be hitting me
left and right and I don’t know
which way to turn, my best advice to everyone is simple. Give thanks.
Find those things in your life for which you can be thankful and name
them. (Repeatedly!) A
grateful heart will always be your very best friend.
I would like to
close with a short Cherokee song we sing to greet every new day. Upon this graduation, I would like to welcome
you to your new day.
Thank you for this
opportunity to share.
Wado.
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