In honor of myself finally becoming respectable and earning my B.E. degree from the Kumaon University of Nainital, Uttarakhand, I felt inspired to write a graduation speech that I would give to those who have graduated with me and if there were anyone to ask me to do so. Part of what inspired me to do this is because the college that I studied in is yet to come up with my final result and they are damned enough never to arrange such lasting memories for us.
First I want to of course offer up my congratulations to you, the graduating class of 2009 (that includes myself), and to everyone who helped you and me achieve the goal that we are here today to celebrate.
Usually these speeches are intended to provide us with a glimpse into the future, the quote real world, and to give us words of inspiration as we set off into this world. Well, this isn't going to be one of those speeches, because let’s face it, the real world kind of sucks right now. I would guess that most of us know this already, probably better than I do, so there is no use going on with false platitudes about how there are a lot of opportunities out there for us because, well, there aren't a lot of opportunities out there for anybody. Instead, I hope to provide ourselves with some advice on how to proceed from here. Hopefully this advice will one day be useful to all of us, or at least will not put us to sleep.
Some of us may not care to hear any words of advice from me. You already know what you’ll be doing tomorrow and next week and beyond. All of our plans are set and maybe we are ready to go. To you I can only say good luck and god speed, with the knowledge that most of the graduates who feel this way are skipping this ceremony and have probably already left campus for good such that I don’t need to worry about finding something witty or profound to say to them.
No, my advice is for those of us who are not sure what we’ll be doing tomorrow or next week or beyond. Maybe we have a job or a post-grad school seat lined up, maybe we don’t. I would guess that we are feeling a mixture of emotions right now. Part of us is happy that we are finally done with college and will receive the degree that we worked so hard the last 4 years to attain. I would bet, though, that part of us is sad to see this day come, because we are about to say goodbye to the world that we have built for ourselves here and basically start all over again, and that can be one scary thought.
If you ever want to know what a ghost town feels like, visit the campus tomorrow. All of the buildings, quads, and sidewalks that just yesterday were teeming with students will be empty. All of the students will be gone, all of the faculty will be back home, all of the buildings will be closed and locked, all of the dorms will be empty, and only the janitors will be around to clean up after the ceremonies. It is kind of eerie and spooky, perhaps even scary, to be surrounded by all that emptiness. It perhaps mirrors the feelings that some of you may have now, the scary emptiness that comes with saying those final goodbyes to your friends, your classmates, your professors, and the campus community that you have called home. You hope that by staying in contact with your friends and professors that you’ll be able to maintain some semblance of the life that you have enjoyed here, but deep down you know that it won’t be the same.
And now we face the challenge of having to find a new home with new friends, new co-workers, new advisors, and a new life. This could seem daunting, especially with the current economic climate, but it is not as big of a challenge as it might now appear to be. For many of us our college experience was our first time away from home, the first time we got to decide what to eat for dinner or which roommates we lived with or even whether or not we were going to attend classes that day or which party to attend that night. Even if someone else was paying for it we still got to decide, or at least have a say, in how the money was spent. By surviving and perhaps even thriving in this environment we proved that we could make a life for ourself and that we could establish an identity of our own. The survival skills that we learned while being here will also help us establish a new life, a new identity for ourself, when we leave. And these skills are just as important as the technical skills and body of knowledge that we gained in pursuit of the degree that will be awarded to us.
I would also advice us all to be patient. If you already have a career path laid out for yourself that’s great, but don’t panic if you don’t have any idea what to do. You still have plenty of time to figure that out. I know we hear all these platitudes about living for today and only doing what you want to do for a living, but unless you are very lucky or very crazy this is probably not the live that you will end up leading. Indeed, chances are that the life we will one day have will be very different from the one we now think we will have. It may turn out that we’ll end up in a career that is different from what we studied. I know plenty of people who have successful careers in fields that were not the ones that that they studied in college. That is not to say that your time here would have been wasted. If you are patient and flexible you will eventually be able to establish a career for yourself no matter what condition the economy or the job market is in, and who knows, you might even one day get that dream job where you get paid for doing what you want to do.
Albus Dumbledore once said that we shall be faced by two paths - the easy one and the right one. The choice will always reside with us.
So my parting thoughts to you are this. It is perfectly natural to feel unsure and even a little bit scared about what will happen to you after today. Your life will be different and it will be a challenge to establish a new life for yourself, but the fact that you are standing here today is proof that you have the ability to overcome these challenges and succeed. It may take a while for it to happen, but if you were able to survive college and walk out of here with a degree in your hand then you stand a good chance to surviving life after college and walking onward into a successful career and a successful life. My hope is that this will one day happen for all of you. I wish you all the best.
Good Luck and God Speed.
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