Good morning, everyone.
President Cornish, Provost Stein, members of the Board of Trustees, Deans, Faculty, Coaches, administration, distinguished guests, parents, friends, and most importantly graduates – thank you for inviting me to speak today at this Commencement ceremony. I am deeply honored to be here with my incredible wife, Rhonda, and our two amazing children, Cole and Calla.
There is a legend that Theodore Roosevelt once gave the shortest commencement address ever. According to the tale, he walked up to the podium and simply said, “Don’t ever give up.”
I could therefore save us all some time and end my talk right now…but I just do not have the brevity, gravitas and apparently the humility to pull that off!
I am, though, a proud graduate of the Ithaca College class of 1998.
I love Ithaca College. I have good reason to. Most of what my life has become emanates right here on the south hill. I met my wife here. I dreamed of owning my own business here. I learned the value of a liberal arts education here. I played baseball here. I made myself here.
For me, a son of a roofer from a rural town so small it barely shows up on a map, this place helped put me on the map, and for that I am forever grateful.
I hope you too are grateful. For gratitude pays the bills of life.
But this talk today will not be filled with didactic stories, fables, or platitudes. While that might be a classic commencement strategy, I have too much reverence for you.
In my conversations with Dr. Cornish, she impressed upon me that she cares greatly about you, this graduating class; and that you are a strong and unique class that endured the prime of the pandemic.
A class without the benefit of a high school graduation. A class of incoming freshmen who were freshmen not in dormitories surrounded by other wide-eyed freshmen, but at home, learning on a screen.
Without question, the last four years have been punctuated with crises, division, and uncertainty.
One might say you were robbed of a certain experience that was contracted to you and generations before you.
No doubt you’ve had it tough.
CONGRATULATIONS.
I mean that too.
CONGRATULATIONS.
For in that struggle, you have clearly cultivated a certain resilience in yourselves.
I offer these congratulations because the setbacks you've endured, though extrinsically challenging, are intrinsically rewarding. I promise you that resilience will come in very handy after today. You see adult life has a savvy way of continually testing and retesting one's resilience. And if you don’t have it, you take the easier road, and that road is where dreams go to die.
Don’t let your dream die. Not today, not ever!
I’ve lived my life that way. I honestly have.
2024 Commencement Speaker
"I offer these congratulations because the setbacks you've endured, though extrinsically challenging, are intrinsically rewarding. I promise you that resilience will come in very handy after today. You see adult life has a savvy way of continually testing and retesting one's resilience. And if you don’t have it, you take the easier road, and that road is where dreams go to die. Don’t let your dream die. Not today, not ever! "
You see, 26 years ago, I too was graduating. I awoke on a sunny May morning in my apartment on South Aurora Street, excited about the future yet sensing a reflective energy over the entire town. It was a sort of tug-of-war between what was and what would be.
I remember the day well. The festivities, the saying goodbye to my friends, the handshakes, and the hugs…the promises to keep in touch with teammates and professors. I remember the weather being unusually warm. I remember walking down to the baseball field, I laid down in centerfield staring at the bright blue sky, absorbing the last moments of college life. “How can you not be romantic about baseball?”
But for all of it….What I don't remember from that day was the commencement address. I am sure it was marked with important advice and wisdom, but none of it got through.
Probably like you right now, I was preoccupied with the whirlwind of memories and emotions colliding with future expectations. Seriously….who could possibly be asked to pay attention?
It is unquestionably a foolish endeavor, especially in today’s hyperbolic media and political climate for a complete and total stranger to try and provide some inspiration, wisdom to be your very last lesson here. Some may call downright impossible to meet the moment in a way that you will remember many years from now.. With that happy thought, I proceed.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane:
Here is to carefree, fun-filled nights down at the Commons.
Waffles on a Sunday morning.
Pizza and Redbull for finals week.
Bundling up for an 8am class in the depths of February
Roommates. Classmates. Teammates.
College sweethearts.
Trips to Wegmans.
The LA program.
The London program.
The first warm sunny day in the springtime.
The jump in the fountains.
Here’s to your professors and coaches who pushed and prodded to get the most out of you.
Here's to your friends that you made here. Some of them will be with you through the first jobs, the weddings, the births, the challenges and the wins.
Here's to your parents and the people who raised you. Three years ago, they cried all the way home and will likely do the same today. And guess what?…. Those wonderful people will be in your corner, through thick and thin, for the rest of their lives, hoping, pulling for, wishing, and supporting you, no matter what. Give them all the thanks, hugs and kisses you can, for after this day, it's just different.
Take a good hard look at the person next to you right now. Maybe put your arm around them. In a few hours, that simple act, taken for granted for so long, will not be so simple anymore.
"Your generation, you in the seats here today, are being called on right now. And you have a mighty calling ... It is you that will build the businesses, raise the families, create the ideas, do the work that will define your time. It is you that will solve the problems we humans face today and win the opportunities of tomorrow. "
AND HERE IS TO YOU, TO YOU!
The cap and gown, and the sharing of an accomplishment worthy of this ceremony. Many of you will be leaving here today and heading out into this big, bold, hot, uncertain world. The world is different now than when I did the same many years ago. Some see a place of conflict, division, strife & struggle. Others know it as the most advanced, the most blessed, the most capable world in human history.
Whatever view you try on, one thing is certain...Your generation, you in the seats here today, are being called on right now.
AND YOU HAVE A MIGHTY CALLING!
That calling rings today not as a pollyannaish pat on the back but rather a resounding challenge for all the world to hear.
It is you that will build the businesses, raise the families, create the ideas, do the work that will define your time. It is you that will solve the problems we humans face today and win the opportunities of tomorrow.
Everyone, and I mean everyone, has a profound interest in what you will do.
Like every graduate this spring, bestowed on you are great gifts, great expectations, therefore great responsibility. You possess the ascending power of youth, energy, and idealism…and from this institution, you have the means to make something of it. And if that does not excite you, does not give you a rising sense of hope in your chest you might want to pause and reflect, because graduates, it does not get much better than this!
It is your time now…. and what a TIME it is to shape this world.
"It is your time now…. and what a TIME it is to shape this world."
I am reminded of something I learned my freshman year here that has stuck with me ever since…A passage from the naturalist John Muir written 130 years ago. “One learns that the world, though made, is yet being made. That this is still the morning of creation.”
GRADUATES, THIS IS YOUR MORNING OF CREATION.
Mornings by their very nature are positive, aren't they? The mere concept of a sunrise promotes a feeling of possibility. It’s a chance to do something great.
That is the energy of creation. It’s positive, it’s optimistic and taken with some determination and dare I say resilience - anything is possible. Simply anything.
As you go about remaking this world, on this very morning I hope you are filled with a sense of enthusiasm, excitement and energy. As you are young, you no doubt think you have plenty of time. You don't.
George Valesente, our former great baseball coach and a member of the Coaching Hall of Fame, repeatedly told me that my time at Ithaca was like a backward-ticking clock, counting down from four years to zero. He warned me that it goes by fast, so make the most of the time you have! Well, Coach you were right, whether it's four years or 49, it does go by fast.
In the famous words by the character Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) in The Shawshank Redemption, “Get busy living………or get busy dying.”
You see, my lesson in all of this is between the chair you're sitting in and the podium I'm standing on is a twisting, harrowing, fun, exciting, unpredictable journey of ups, downs, defeats, victories, joys, and sorrows… otherwise known as the precious gift of life.
And while everyone’s is different, the themes of a successful one have rung true for thousands of years, and no matter the march of technology or culture, they will remain the same for the next thousand.
Do things the right way.
Fill your mind, body, soul with good, healthy things that love you back.
Seek learning every day.
Listen and observe before you speak and act.
Work your asses off.
Be decent, informed, aware, empathetic citizens.
AND MOST IMPORTANTLY
DON’T EVER GIVE UP
DON’T EVER GIVE UP
DON’T….EVER….GIVE UP!
So in concluding your education, I have one….last….final….request. Really a simple thought experiment to frame the piece of art that you painted in your four years here. Please do me the honor to consider it.
I ask you to pause for a moment.
Calm the mind.
No pretense.
A pure moment of you.
I ask: How do you want to live?
You want normal?
You want safe?
You want predictable?
You want limits?
Or do you want freedom?
To breathe.
To compete.
To learn.
To work.
To grow and flourish.
Get a little better each and every second.
To try to break free from the straight-jacket of norms and expectations.
To yell and scream.
To kick down doors.
Throw up two middle fingers. One to fear and the other to doubt.
To keep moving forward.
To learn.
To be open to new and informed ideas.
To hunt for a challenge. A mountain to climb. A thing to win. A record to break. A cage to shake.
To refuse to give up or give in.
And at the end of your road, many years from today you'll look back and quietly judge your journey and how you went about doing it.
I ask you:
What do you want to look back on?
What kind of life do you want to create?
How do you want to live?
The choice, graduates is now yours to make.
And with that, my heartfelt congratulations to the class of 2024! Thank you very much. Godspeed to you all.