“Freshmen Again“
Rice University 2014 Undergraduate Graduation Speech
This past Friday, May 16 2014 I was honored to be selected as the student speaker for Rice University’s undergraduate convocation ceremony. The video recording is available via Rice’s webcast archive (fast forward to the 15 minute mark).
Good Evening, and thank you for the privilege of speaking before you today.
To be honest — it’s a relief to be standing here.
For the next 6 to 7 minutes, nobody can ask me what I’m doing next year.
I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. And I can’t help but think about when we first stepped through the Sallyport — and how much we didn’t fear, but relished the future. I think about how excited we were. I think about the enthusiasm of my sister Lydia, a soon to be Rice Owl, Class of 2018.
And I think about the energy we had back then.
The 949 undergraduates that matriculated in 2010 were proud, foolish dreamers — delighted, addicted and fueled by dreams. As freshmen we planned on four majors with a minor in Business, threefold that many extracurricular interests, co-founding the next Google, designing a new major on reality TV, volunteering, writing, leading, publishing, researching, maybe a bit of partying — all while gaining fluency in an obscure dialect of a near-dead language on the side.
Graduating seniors, I have great news for you: We are about to be freshmen again!
Wherever we set out next in life, we’re taking a fall off the top of the totem pole. We will be starting anew — yes, again.
And I challenge us to not simply accept that — but embrace it.
Because I think we need to finally address just how much we fear that brutal question — you know the one! Spring semester, we hear it over and over like a broken record. Friends are scared to ask it. Parents love it. I think underclassmen ask it because they are just as worried as we are:
“So.. what are you doing after graduation?”
Because these past few years, when I’ve witnessed seniors mechanically and sometimes painfully describe their prospects, far too often I miss the voices of those dreamers I entered the Sallyport with.
Not because we failed in our ambitions — amidst this class I see a group of skilled, driven leaders, born here in Houston ready to shake up the world. We are incredibly fortunate, amongst this nation’s most college-educated generation ever, to be Rice Owls: members of one of the most elite and arguably most rewarding undergraduate programs.
But if I had to be honest, I’m not always sure if we really dream like we used to. Wonderful, unrealistic dreams. Entering Rice we saw the sky as the limit — now exiting, we nervously tread the ground beneath us praying it won’t give way.
Far too often, we talk about our plans not in terms of what we aspire to accomplish but rather about how we strategize to survive.
We trade news of jobs and school prospects like some sort of bizarre game — I like to call to call it Reverse Survivor: Last one left on the island lives in their parent’s basement.
No, this isn’t really a job market for dreamers.
As far as our generation’s concerned, forget Forbes’ 30 under 30 — I’ll settle for 30 and not under the poverty line, thanks.
Not to mention, if figuring out your life has always been confusing, it can be soul-crushing if you look up what the rest of the world’s already gotten up to by their early twenties. How are we supposed to dream in a world where we already know it’s too late to be Mark Zuckerberg?
Some would contend it’s only natural we exchanged some optimism for realism. As every student here knows, they tell you there are three areas to student life at Rice: Sleep, Study and your Social Life. Then, they tell you to pick two.
We can get so overwhelmed, as students we stop dreaming and settle for breathing. At some juncture we exchange awe for apathy and forget to aspire for more.
Because here’s the truth we all learned: Ambition can be exhausting.
This Spring, I took for it for granted that this would be my best semester at Rice. Instead, I caught mononucleosis, and while bedridden I thought I’d seen the worst. Then, these final months — that should have been about joy and celebration — met sudden personal tragedy, and grief. I found that life had other plans, and it didn’t really feel like dreams fit into our lives anymore. I cannot pretend to make sense of events this year that felt so senseless — but in writing this speech, I had to ask myself where do we go from here. And I thought back to that ambition that brought us right here in the first place, through the Sallyport beneath an August nightsky filled with fireworks, to this very spot, and I see hope. I remember dreams.
So I urge you, when asked about your plans after graduation, don’t shy away with a three word answer about a job title or school. Speak boldly, candidly and hopefully about dreams that are multi-faceted, fanciful and even self-contradictory. Be that freshman with four majors.
These are my plans: I want to find another home amongst quirky, diverse, and yes, unconventional thinkers. I know I’d like to give back, and volunteer my time coaching high school kids in Speech & Debate. I hope to live in New York, Portland, Paris, and San Francisco — all at the same time. I want to learn how to actually parallel park. I aspire to impact the world of communications and media, and if I’m lucky, help break a glass ceiling or two while I’m at it. And someday, I think I’d also like to get married. Next year I also happen to be working in advertising — but that’s just one part of the dream.
Classmates, parents, faculty, guests and all members of the assembled Rice family: I hope that my words today have resonated with your experiences and thoughts. To the Seniors of the Class of 2014 — my heartfelt congratulations on becoming freshmen again.
On a personal note, this speech is dedicated to my dearly missed friend and classmate, Reny Jose.
