Commencement weekend! Congratulations to all graduating GW seniors and grad students!! Baccalaureate Mass this Saturday, May 14, 5:30 pm, St. Stephen’s Church. All GW Catholic seniors and their families are invited!!
Here is a reflection by a GW Catholic senior. She submitted this to the university as a potential speech at Commencement…it should have been accepted! The reference of St. Paul and Scripture quote probably doomed its chances, unfortunately.
Over the past four years we have been told that college is the time of our lives; a time of independence from our parents, self-discovery, experimentation, change.
Walking through Foggy Bottom this year, did you ever pass by a wide-eyed freshman and laugh to yourself, secretly knowing that this was you not long ago: mildly lost, walking down all the cross streets to the Elliot School because you didn’t know how to cut through University Yard, wearing your GWorld on a lanyard around your neck, full of J Street food and aspirations.” So what makes us so different now from then other than 120 credits and a resume chock-full of internships?
Saint Paul once said, “What do you have that you did not receive (Cor 4:7)?” And this college journey has truly been about receiving:
In our freshman year we experienced residential life for the first time; some of us met our first love in Thurston, but most of us learned of our faults, imperfections, and idiosyncrasies through the eyes of our roommates, through the House Proctors who resolved our petty conflicts and baked us cookies during midterms, and through the amazing staff who cleaned our dorm rooms (especially Marie from Lafayette and South Hall- you’re the best). From campus living we received self-awareness and patience.
In our sophomore year we experienced an inauguration like no other; whether we were a College Republican or Democrat we huddled together for warmth on the National Mall, and became a part of American history. From the many motorcades that tore through campus, internships on the Hill, and voting by absentee ballot in our first Presidential election we received our sense of civic engagement and responsibility. But more importantly from the U.S. servicemen and women, and all the GW Veterans here with us today we received the freedom that allows us to live in this great nation’s capitol free of the fears and political distress that ravage our world today.
In our junior year we experienced a global university; whether we were fortunate enough to study abroad in one of over 50 countries or as international students representing 125 countries here at GW, we received a worldview and friendships that we’ll carry with us the rest of our lives. We watched from our desks as a financial crisis unfolded, and we experienced one of our own exchanging dollars for Euros and other stronger currencies in our travels.
And now as we conclude our senior year we sit in our caps and gowns that represent perspective, reason, and wisdom. Some of us that our professors and educators “taught us how to think” while some us believe that perhaps we still know very little about the world, but at a higher level. Today we receive a diploma, but today is no longer about receiving.
Since we arrived at GW, better yet since we arrived on this Earth, we have been graced with all of these gifts, and apart from our grades we did not need to earn most of them. Our commencement today is more than a celebration of academic achievement; it marks our transition from wide-eyed freshmen to confident, educated, ready-for-the-real-world graduates; from receivers to givers.
And so today I ask myself, and all of my fellow classmates, not what will we take from college or who we leave behind, but what will we give away? When we arrived at GW we were told that we would be cultivated into the leaders of tomorrow. Whether tomorrow means graduate school, professional life, the armed forces, or something yet to be discovered it is time to lead and to serve others. Thank you George Washington University for your many gifts and God Bless the Class of 2011 – may you always be called to give and to serve.
No comments:
Post a Comment