To "100 Days! Woohoo!"
I responded with the one legitimate concern that I had: "Does That Include Weekends?"
Much to my dismay, it most certainly did. For the first time, graduation confronted me in countable reach and this overly flattering Fire Engine red cap and gown presented itself as nothing but an eviction notice, forcing me out of the place it has taken every bit of four years to finally call home. Not capable of celebrating, and too anxious to sleep - I did the next natural thing that occurred to me: I sulked. I sulked and I sat, alone in my apartment, on a Thursday night - that 100 days to graduation, and I thought about my life: past, present, and as much as I dreaded its lurking in the distance, my future.
Freshman year we all arrived, and for most of us, this served as a catalyst to our independence. Seniors looked cool, mature, accomplished. While I can't say much has changed for me in terms of cool, I now look at the freshman and swear I never looked that young. I can also assure you that our class did a far better job than the current at walking at a reasonable pace and not blocking the sidewalks like Oklahoma tourist in time square. But in truth, that is probably just not true. Not so long ago, these streets were new to us. It probably took some longer than others to realize that COM is the building with the radio tower on top, and if all else failed, there is also a fountain in the yard. But those kids, huddled around the campus maps, literally and figuratively in all the wrong places - that was us. Looking at the seniors then, they were about to be going somewhere I thought. Little did I know however, we were about to be going somewhere too.
Surely, we were all about to embark into higher education, at one of the best communication schools in the country, exposed to a faculty whose wisdom we will take with us into our future professions - but any college graduate can say most of that. At risk of stealing the bookstores tacky mug motto "Be You" spelt out B-E-Y-O-U, in my experience, this school could not have been more aptly named. While there is a nation of college graduates bonded by the fact that they have a degree, we are slightly better than that, because we are bonded here, to this experience, in a place that promotes not only a professional journey, but a personal one - and that has made all the difference.
It is at BU that I walked into a PR class. It was at BU that I began to grow into my own and walked straight out of a PR class. It was while broadening my horizons inside the classroom that the world outside of COM's walls came into focused view. It has been my experiences here, from Kenmore Square to Gardener Street, at the top of my game to the bottom of a bottle, in Mugar, at Mantra - that has shaped the graduate that stands before you, and all my fellow graduates who sit before me. BU let us find ourselves, and for whatever that's worth, we have all found something here that some people will never find and quite frankly, that is what separates us, sitting here today, from all the other kids sitting in the same places as we are right now. We have been taught how to think, and that is why that Thursday, that 100 days until graduation, what I didn't recognize was that there was no need to panic.
The same way we arrived here and were handed the tools to find the Ritz Clafflin, four years later, we have all been given the tools to be competent, confident, and assume our places in the world. What we have greater than a declared major, is a skill set that allows us to be smarter than the fear of the unknown, and once you can realize that, there is no more fear. There is one less excuse not do something. Good new is? We have that skill. The skill that tells us when want to sulk alone, that there are so many better reasons not to. Of course sometimes sulking will get the better of you, happens to the best of us but I know now that I chose to sulk, now I choose not to - and it is not sulking or not sulking that matters here, it is understanding that it is a choice. Because of our education in both Communication and in life, we are all capable of understanding fear as a choice, and once that concept can be grasped, it is just as easy to be afraid, as it is not to be. The better news in this situation? As graduates of the School of Communication, and BU on the whole, we are ready and able to not only act without fear, but with confidence that we can rest on our laurels of where we came from - and that place is here.
Today is the first of many milestones in our truly adult life. It is the point in our timelines where once again we can choose. We can choose to be evicted by life, everytime it is simply our time to progress - or we can remember the power of our roots here, and shop for penthouses. The ability to see beyond the butterflies in our stomach, to go and celebrate life even on nights when you think your life might be ending - it is that trait which bonds us, and will keep us bonded as we succeed together, just as we are succeeding here together, today. I am confident we can rest assured that we will all find our way - just as we did here, and walk with a little bit of swagger in our step knowing not necessarily what we are going to be doing, but knowing what we've done.
To the class of 2009, I hope you achieve whatever it is you have set out to do here. As we all move on together, I hope we take our next steps with both a sense of humor, and a sense of purpose, and never forget that we have the confidence and the competence to do so. Congratulations.
Much to my dismay, it most certainly did. For the first time, graduation confronted me in countable reach and this overly flattering Fire Engine red cap and gown presented itself as nothing but an eviction notice, forcing me out of the place it has taken every bit of four years to finally call home. Not capable of celebrating, and too anxious to sleep - I did the next natural thing that occurred to me: I sulked. I sulked and I sat, alone in my apartment, on a Thursday night - that 100 days to graduation, and I thought about my life: past, present, and as much as I dreaded its lurking in the distance, my future.
Freshman year we all arrived, and for most of us, this served as a catalyst to our independence. Seniors looked cool, mature, accomplished. While I can't say much has changed for me in terms of cool, I now look at the freshman and swear I never looked that young. I can also assure you that our class did a far better job than the current at walking at a reasonable pace and not blocking the sidewalks like Oklahoma tourist in time square. But in truth, that is probably just not true. Not so long ago, these streets were new to us. It probably took some longer than others to realize that COM is the building with the radio tower on top, and if all else failed, there is also a fountain in the yard. But those kids, huddled around the campus maps, literally and figuratively in all the wrong places - that was us. Looking at the seniors then, they were about to be going somewhere I thought. Little did I know however, we were about to be going somewhere too.
Surely, we were all about to embark into higher education, at one of the best communication schools in the country, exposed to a faculty whose wisdom we will take with us into our future professions - but any college graduate can say most of that. At risk of stealing the bookstores tacky mug motto "Be You" spelt out B-E-Y-O-U, in my experience, this school could not have been more aptly named. While there is a nation of college graduates bonded by the fact that they have a degree, we are slightly better than that, because we are bonded here, to this experience, in a place that promotes not only a professional journey, but a personal one - and that has made all the difference.
It is at BU that I walked into a PR class. It was at BU that I began to grow into my own and walked straight out of a PR class. It was while broadening my horizons inside the classroom that the world outside of COM's walls came into focused view. It has been my experiences here, from Kenmore Square to Gardener Street, at the top of my game to the bottom of a bottle, in Mugar, at Mantra - that has shaped the graduate that stands before you, and all my fellow graduates who sit before me. BU let us find ourselves, and for whatever that's worth, we have all found something here that some people will never find and quite frankly, that is what separates us, sitting here today, from all the other kids sitting in the same places as we are right now. We have been taught how to think, and that is why that Thursday, that 100 days until graduation, what I didn't recognize was that there was no need to panic.
The same way we arrived here and were handed the tools to find the Ritz Clafflin, four years later, we have all been given the tools to be competent, confident, and assume our places in the world. What we have greater than a declared major, is a skill set that allows us to be smarter than the fear of the unknown, and once you can realize that, there is no more fear. There is one less excuse not do something. Good new is? We have that skill. The skill that tells us when want to sulk alone, that there are so many better reasons not to. Of course sometimes sulking will get the better of you, happens to the best of us but I know now that I chose to sulk, now I choose not to - and it is not sulking or not sulking that matters here, it is understanding that it is a choice. Because of our education in both Communication and in life, we are all capable of understanding fear as a choice, and once that concept can be grasped, it is just as easy to be afraid, as it is not to be. The better news in this situation? As graduates of the School of Communication, and BU on the whole, we are ready and able to not only act without fear, but with confidence that we can rest on our laurels of where we came from - and that place is here.
Today is the first of many milestones in our truly adult life. It is the point in our timelines where once again we can choose. We can choose to be evicted by life, everytime it is simply our time to progress - or we can remember the power of our roots here, and shop for penthouses. The ability to see beyond the butterflies in our stomach, to go and celebrate life even on nights when you think your life might be ending - it is that trait which bonds us, and will keep us bonded as we succeed together, just as we are succeeding here together, today. I am confident we can rest assured that we will all find our way - just as we did here, and walk with a little bit of swagger in our step knowing not necessarily what we are going to be doing, but knowing what we've done.
To the class of 2009, I hope you achieve whatever it is you have set out to do here. As we all move on together, I hope we take our next steps with both a sense of humor, and a sense of purpose, and never forget that we have the confidence and the competence to do so. Congratulations.
