I don’t like to typically talk about things unless they are for sure happening, but this is for sure NOT happening anymore – therefore – I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t post this.
A few weeks back, the leadership department at Seattle University was searching for commencement speakers for this year’s graduation ceremony and I figured I had a few things I could say. I turned in my application and my speech and became a finalist. I had my audition last week, but I had this sinking feeling that the role just wasn’t going to go to me. We’ve all had that feeling, right? The girl before me made everyone in the room laugh a lot harder than I did. Oh well.
Below is my speech though and even though I was not selected, it is still a piece that I am proud of.
Thank you to Seattle University for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the students. It is an honor to be standing in front of you all today – students, family, friends, faculty and staff, and the Seattle University community.
Four years ago, we sat in a set up similar to this one. We made jokes in our seats, reminisced with our friends, and dreaded the ceremony that we thought would drag on forever as every one of our peer’s names were called. Secretly, you loved every minute of it. Today, you might be in your seats doing the exact same thing and feeling the same way as you did four years ago or you might just be Facebooking and tweeting from your phone.
When we stepped onto Seattle University’s campus for the first time, we were overwhelmed with feelings of nervousness, eagerness, excitement, and anxiety. We were greeted by some extremely good looking people in red polos with perma-smiles. This indicated to us that college was not going to be anything like Old School or Van Wilder after all. Instead, Seattle University has provided us with a curriculum that would educate the whole person, prepare us for professional formation, and challenge us to become leaders for a just and humane world.
Looking back on the Class of 2012, we are truly a class of makers. It is with these hands that we have enabled ourselves to make our own luck, to pursue our aspirations, and create our own success.
• As freshmen, these hands voted in their first election.
• These hands have participated in service for the local communities in the Seattle area to give back to those less fortunate than we.
• These hands have questioned, have commented, and have been curious and proactive in our learning.
• It is the hands of others that have provided us with a new library and learning commons, a new fitness center, and an admissions building over the span of our four years here.
• These hands have supported each other during difficult times including the loss of two students earlier this school year Taro Kobayashi and Cameron Christian, who would have graduated with us today.
• The person sitting next to you has hands that are worn, but not yet aged. These hands have opened doors to new opportunities, closed doors on old habits, and have shaped the person we are today. As these hands have traveled to the other side of the country and back, taken flights to new countries, they have molded our paths through SU. Our hands have shoveled dirt during service trips, built houses, and have shaken the hands of the less fortunate and the prominent. These hands of ours have been held by one another as we make our way through college and now as we stand at the end.
A wise friend once told me, “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” Of course, this was just a couple hours before the traditional Senior Streak, but regardless no statement sounded truer than for this occasion. I could stand here before you today to tell you all that you can do absolutely anything you want the second you leave Key Arena, but since people have been telling you that your whole life, I’m sure that’s not what you want to hear. By now, you know yourself better than anyone else. You know what you are capable of and you know what it takes to make your own success.
While the past four years have led us down different paths enabling us to have unique college experiences, today we will have reached this milestone together. I invite you all to join with us as we celebrate our achievements, congratulate our grads, and anticipate all that is ahead.
With that I would like to leave you with the ending lyrics to Fun’s “We Are Young,” which includes a modified ending:
Tonight
We are young
So let’s set the world on fire
We can burn brighter
than the sun
So if by the time the bar closes
and you feel like falling down
maybe the nighthawk will drive you home
One last time tonight.
I wish you all the best of luck and congratulations!