Saturday marked my first commencement at Stephens College, my first opportunity to be a part of one of the most important and inspiring celebrations of our academic year.
December's event is always smaller in scope and scale than our spring event, of course (and people tell me we didn't even hold a ceremony in December until a couple of years ago...), but the ballroom in LRW was packed with family and friends of our 40 (or so) graduates.
As I explained in my remarks to the gathering, I was basically the keynote speaker nobody really wanted: Students had indicated they didn't really care if they had a 'main' speaker for Graduation.
But I cared.
I think EVERYBODY should have a keynote speaker at graduation, even if it's someone they already know (well).
In addition to the inspiring words and best wishes of their fellow students, I think every graduate should have to sit through a speech by someone who encourages them to go out and save the world (or other similarly unreasonable but hopeful directives).
Yesterday, that was me.
I stopped short of the 'save the world' thing, though I would certainly encourage all of our new grads to do that should the opportunity arise.
Instead, I outlined the five points of a Stephens Star -- those five simple steps that guarantee a full and happy life (really, I'm not kidding....and if you weren't there, well, you'll have to invite me to be the keynote speaker at YOUR graduation to find out what I said....)
At the close of the ceremony, I also got to be the speaker who delivered the "charge" -- a tradition at Stephens that allows the president to have the last word (which meant that I had the first, the middle, AND the last words; I have a pretty good sense that the whole congregation was getting a tad tired of listening to me talk by the time we got around to singing the Stephens anthem....)
And even though I can't repeat the speech, I thought maybe you all might be interested in the charge....after all, it counts for you, too.....
Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years.
No one would sleep that night. The world would become religious overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory and wonder of our world, and our God.
Instead, the stars come out every night, and we sit inside, watching The Office and working on our laptops.
Stephens has prepared you for the lives that await you.
The glory and wonder of those lives rest not in these momentous cultural rituals -- although they are wonderful in their own way -- but in the opportunities, the moments, the stars -- the Stephens Stars -- that surround us.
My advice -- my charge -- to you is that you take the time to SEE them, to experience them, to know them and be amazed by them.
My directive to you is that you must be a lifelong learner, knowing that the best lessons you will learn are those that are informed by your education, expanded by your experience, and inspired by your passion.
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