Tonight marks a bittersweet moment
for me. Most of those graduating come from my first class at the SAU Honors
College. We began our journey together in August 2009, me the first year honors
director; you honors freshmen. None of us knew then what the future would hold.
When Freud analyzed his patients's
dreams, he knew what dreaming of a voyage symbolized. To him, it represented
our lifelong journey from birth to death. Perhaps, he thought that such a
weighty topic needed to be symbolized given its awesome finality.
But, I'm not here to talk about
life and death, I'll leave that to the preacher tomorrow. I'm here to talk
about a short stretch of your lifelong journey. Somehow, all of you decided to
make a stop here in Magnolia, Arkansas.
Some of you had to come a long way
to get here. You crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Kenya. You flew across the
Pacific Ocean from Korea, Nepal, and China. We are glad you did. Others just
crossed a state line or two and still others simply changed their Arkansas zip
codes for a while.
I know that when you arrived you
thought that four years was a long time. You thought that four years would last
forever. What do you think now? How many times have you surprised someone by
telling them you will graduate next month? Where did the time go? How did it
pass so quickly?
I want you to think about the next
stage of your life's journey. Most of you will be leaving SAU behind and moving
on to other places and tasks. All of you have plans and aspiration for the
years to come. Graduate school, professional school, and craft apprenticeships
await you. Those next stages, too, will pass more quickly than you might think
possible.
You have changed over your years
here. The videos we just watched are ample proof of what you were then. But,
you also changed us, your teachers. Education is a two-way street. Teachers
learn from their students too. I learned about China, Korea, and Nepal. About
athletic training, the theatre, Robert's Rules of Order, frog calls, stem
cells, and poetry.
I know you learned something too. It
may not yet be apparent to you, what you learned, that is. Gradually, however,
you'll start to realize just how much you did pick up on your stopover in
Magnolia. Your backpack is a little heavier now than it was when you first showed
up.
Here's the thing, though. Your
journey is far from over. At your next stop you will encounter a new set of
challenges, ones that you are now ready to meet head on. Ones that four years
ago would have easily overcome you because you were not yet ready to face them.
Now you are ready. Snug up the straps on your back pack, walk out the door, hit
the road confidently. Your future awaits.
Some of us, myself included, have
already journeyed long. Yet, we are not yet tired, or even better, not yet
REtired! We may have slowed our pace and we may limit how far we travel (it's
two miles to Walmart, btw). But we are not yet ready to stop. Furthermore, we
are rekindled year after year by you, our fellow travelers. We also profit by
the time we spent here with you.
So, thank you for having journeyed
to the SAU Honors College. Thank you for spending some of your precious time
with us. It's time for both us to move on. Godspeed, and feel free to drop in
again any time, no need to call first.
Congratulations, we love you, we'll
miss you, you'll always be in our thoughts and prayers.
Oh, and you are welcome back any
time. Also, when you write the SAU Foundation put the words Honors College on
your donations.
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