April 2, 2011

• Speeches

  So I got this e-mail saying that since I had a good GPA and so forth, I could apply for doing the commencement speech at graduation. For like 7,000 IUPUI students and family members. And I thought to myself…what would I say to all those people? And then I wrote it down and sent it in. And forgot about it.

  Just got an e-mail: they want a final interview–I have been chosen as a finalist! Yea! Boo! So I explained I was…slightly out of the country. Awww. Apparently, that means I can’t do it. They don’t think that speech classes and interviews and meetings and whatnot can be done over skype. Too bad, so sad. Actually…this sorta means all the fun without the work–I get to bask in the glow of being chosen, without having to really do anything about it. So that is fine with me.

  While I may not have such a big audience…here’s the speech–for you–the important audience. I really am excited out of my socks to have graduated. It has meant so much to me. And it is pretty neat that it is working out that I will be able to go to the ceremony. Hope to see you there: May 15, 3:30pm at…opps. I don’t know where. But somewhere. I will tell you later.

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  “You are 67% normal” says the Facebook test.  Apparently, not everyone agrees with me that life as we know it would be better with ice cream.  I laugh when I say this now, but it wasn’t always like that. I used to want to score 100. There was a way that things were supposed to be done, and I was going to follow it. And then God laughed.

  Most of us have heard of “the plan:” Go to school. Get good grades. Turn 18. Go to college and four years later sit in this room and feel really good about it being over. It didn’t work that way for me. In fact, it didn’t work that way for at least 40% of the students here (http://imir.iupui.edu/). Life happens. You learn things. The plan changes.

  For those of you who have worked hard and completed your degree in four years—a hearty congratulations. I am sure in that in those years you have found ways to break out of your own normal and grow into a bigger person. As Whoopi Goldburg said, “Normal is nothing more than a cycle on the washing machine.”

  To those who might have taken the scenic view on the road through college, congratulations as well. After nine years, four different colleges in two different countries, with various credits in various subjects all over the board, I came to IUPUI and put all my cards on the table. And the kind people in the General Studies office helped me put together a new plan: to finish.

  They helped me write a new definition of normal that fit me. A finisher. An achiever of my objectives. We are all here today, united by this new definition—the one that says it is normal for me to attain my goals and celebrate a job well done. Congratulations.

  Like all good lessons in life, they are meant to be applied liberally and eaten with ice cream. My journey required learning that being 67% normal was just a number, and that I was in charge of writing my own definition of normal. The challenge today is being able to take the definitions we have written about ourselves, about what our normal is, and take that out into the world with us. Good luck.

  Someone told me that if it is worth doing, it is worth celebrating. We have done it, and so now let us celebrate. Life doesn’t always give us opportunities to stop and enjoy what we have done—it is a decision we have to make to take the time to do. But today we have our moment with Pomp and Circumstance. Remember it, treasure it, repeat it. Often.

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  • 8:35 pm
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