―The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)
While it’s traditional to begin a commencement address with a joke or a humorous anecdote, I will not break character. Although it is hard to believe, I never laughed. I was stern and silent. I was gray in a gray world. Rather than regale you with bromides and empty promises, I want to talk to you from the heart in an intelligent way with the courage of my convictions.
I shed a bucketful of tears the other day when I learned of the shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas. That such a tragic event should cast a dark cloud over your special day is powerfully sad. However, sadness is like a cancer that spreads like wildfire.
As sad as the most recent mass shooting in a school is, what is sadder is if we forget before we do something about it.
You might be asking yourself what you possibly do about it. You have enough on your plate: college loans, Covid, inflation, and supply chain issues to name just a few of the potholes on your yellow brick road.
Did college prepare you for the “real world?” Are you ready to take your place as an active participant in the life that awaits you? I am here to tell you that if you spent the last four years of your life only focused on getting an entry-level job at the expense of becoming the person you could be, then you wasted four years of your life.
As a young child you learned how to read. But unless you read to learn, you have many miles to go because learning is the carrot on the end of the stick. Learning is the spur that urges us on. Learning did not only happen in your classes. In fact, I believe that not much real learning goes on in the classroom. Learning was hiding all over the campus. Learning masqueraded as an opportunity. And as an old man, I can tell you that opportunity is not a lengthy visitor.
That’s the message I want to give you today. Be aware of the opportunities that tap you on the shoulder and then choose wisely because you have a lot to consider when an opportunity comes your way.
If you did learn anything in college, I hope you learned how to think….critically; how to love…unconditionally; and how to have the courage to stand up to the forces of evil that will come your way.
Don’t allow yourself to become gray. Don’t believe there is nothing you can do, because every act of kindness you do will make a difference in the world. Don’t wait for tomorrow to live. Live now. Open yourself to new and meaningful friendships. Open your mind to new ideas. Have fun doing whatever you do. Find something to be enthusiastic about and find something to be indignant about. Then do something about both.
And lastly, appreciate the gift of life because it is a precious gift, a gift that was denied to the precious children and teachers at Robb Elementary. Since their names will never be called at a college commencement, I would like to end my talk to you today by calling out the names of those innocent children and the two wonderful teachers whose lives were cut short:
- Makenna Lee Elrod
- Layla Salazar
- Maranda Mathis
- Nevaeh Bravo
- Jose Manuel Flores Jr.
- Xavier Lopez
- Tess Marie Mata
- Rojelio Torres
- Eliahna “Ellie” Amyah Garcia
- Eliahna A. Torres
- Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez
- Jackie Cazares
- Uziyah Garcia
- Jayce Carmelo Luevanos
- Maite Yuleana Rodriguez
- Jailah Nicole Silguero
- Amerie Jo Garza
- Alexandria “Lexi” Aniyah Rubio
- Alithia Ramirez
- Eva Mireles (teacher)
- Irma Garcia (teacher)
Go forth today believing that you are a unique crayon whose job it is to add your color to the world. And don’t forget to color outside the lines!
Along The Yellow Brick Road 