“You Can’t Scare Me” — Inspiring words by Hoda Kotb
I couldn’t be more proud to be a Virginia Tech Hokie and one of the most inspiring days I ever spent in Blacksburg, Virginia was on Friday, May 9, 2008. This was the day that Hoda Kotb gave the commencement speech on the field in Lane Stadium.
This day is cemented into my head, not because I was graduating (I actually graduated a year earlier), but the reason I remember this day vividly is because of a woman named Hoda Kotb. She stood there in front of thousands of students and gave what I believe is one of the most inspiring speeches in the history of commencement speeches.
I think the reason this speech is so memorable was that she was so passionate about it because she had been there, sitting in that same seat. She put the focus solely on those students and gave a personal story about her struggle to get her first job and reach success.
But it wasn’t about her that day, it was about them; those 5000 students graduating from my alma mater. Those students who had worked so hard to sit in that seat and she wanted to leave them with something that would last a lifetime. She succeeded.
She gave them so many quotes to live by that it makes it impossible to choose, but I’ll do my best to highlight a few here.
“If you fall, fall on your back. Because if you fall on your back, you can see up. And if you can see up, you can get up”
This is true for anything in life, if you encounter a struggle and you fail, you never actually failed, because you learned. We can’t learn without trying new thing and every successful person didn’t get there without failure. They struggled and worked hard, but they overcame those odds and used their failures to drive their success story.
“Your job is out there waiting for you. You have got to go get it”
There is a job for everyone out there, I promise you, you just have to work for it. And what I will add here to Hoda’s quote is that yes you have to go get it, but you also may need to create it. Your job may not exist yet, but if you are passionate about something, you can turn that passion into a career.
“Not one more minute would I waste”
I love this because really, what are you waiting for? Are you are waiting for that perfect job, or that perfect relationship, or that perfect house? Well I promise you, that’s not going to happen if you don’t go out there and make it happen.
Steve Harvey said it best, “You gotta jump to be successful.” You have to take a leap of faith that the energy and passion you put into something is going to pay off because if you don’t, it never will.
I would like to congratulate Hoda on her recent promotion to be a co-anchor of NBC’s Today Show. The Virginia Tech motto is Ut Prosim — That I may serve, and Hoda definitely embodies this in her daily life and demonstrates what I think is the true meaning of being a Hokie; to inspire others and give back to the world. She has already had an amazing career and I’m excited to see her in this new role.
So take her advice and get out there, let’s change the world and build a future we want for our kids. Let’s go invent the future.
“They said it will be hard to change the world, but you will.” — Hoda Kotb
