If I were to give your commencement speech...

This is your commencement. And as such, I want you to "commencer." This is the launching pad for all the things that are to come in your life. All the hard work that you have put in to receive this degree has now put you in a position to begin the rest of your life. Seems a bit ironic huh? All that studying, reading, writing, and poster-making has gotten you this: You stand at a fork in the road with many choices in front of you, but no matter what you choose, its going to be a long, difficult journey ahead of you. I could stand here and remind you that you'll always have me assisting you along the way, but I think you already know that by now, and this is not the time for that topic. Instead it is important that you reflect upon what it is that you have achieved and what opportunities all of this hard work will offer you.

You can now say that you have a college degree. You are a college graduate. How amazing and powerful are those words? And yet, what will you do from here? Will you tackle a bachelor's degree? Perhaps followed by a Master's? Or will you return to the class room and work your way towards having your own?

No matter which difficult and arduous path you choose to embark upon, you are now that much more prepared to follow it. If you have to prepare a spread sheet of grades, you know how to do that in MS Excel. When we get ourselves to Europe, your ability to understand the French will be much better. On trips into the forest, you can better appreciate all that goes into God's creations, the science behind all the everday processes that make the world turn. If you are called to speak before a large group (a class perhaps), you will have not only the confidence of possessing that degree, but all the skills you learned in public speaking. When you don't have time to fully read something, you have learned how to get by with just skimming. Your mind will be a little more open when dealing with people of different cultures, knowing some of the terrible conditions and treatment that certain races and religions have faced in our country. You can even put together a portfolio, in order to show all those principals who are going to want to hire you to have at their school.

While you will forget much of what you learned, I hope that there is one thing you take away from these years at NOVA, and that is your potential. This is a tremendous example of what you can achieve in life. I am sure there were times you thought you'd never get this degree, or that it wasn't worth it. Seeing you cross that stage, I know that it was worth every reading assignment, math problem, and poster. I want you to know that you are are someone special. Someone who has achieved something. Someone who has been recognized for that achievement. Most of all, someone who can (and will) achieve so much more.