We are
the class of 2011!!!
I am so honored to represent all of us!
I know from personal experience how wonderful
and unique the student body of CCV is. I
have truly enjoyed my time at CCV, and I have learned so much from my
classmates and professors. All of us have been exposed to a diversity of
viewpoints that has provided us with an education that is truly priceless and I
am so happy that so many of my classmates have come here to celebrate our
accomplishment.
If you
are anything like me, you are already concerned with your next step. I know
some of us will be continuing on to a four-year school, while others will be
beginning their careers. It has taken us a lot of hard work to get here;
earning our degrees. I ask that for
today you set all that aside and celebrate what we have achieved.
As with so many of you, this is a dream come
true for me. It is a day that I always hoped would come, but one that I feared
never would. I knew if I could go back to school, I could really be successful
at it, but I did not believe I would ever find a way back. If you met me three
years ago, you would not recognize me. I had hit bottom. I was 130 pounds
overweight and in the last throes of a very unhappy marriage. By February, I
was also unemployed and in June of ’08 I was homeless and living in Fort Dummer
State Park with my son. Ironically, this unfortunate set of circumstances was
perhaps the best thing that ever happened to me. I ended up in Morningside
Shelter in Brattleboro for six months. After years of trying to do everything
on my own, and failing, I was forced to ask for help.
The staff at Morningside saved me and my son.
They not only helped me find housing, they helped me realize my dreams! They connected me with people who could help
my son with his unique needs and they connected me with the programs that
allowed me to go back to school. I share this story to encourage you to ask for
help when you need it. I have always been a capable and hard worker, but even
so, I owe any success I have achieved to the help of others. All of us are
capable, hard-working individuals who can achieve our goals, as long as you
remember to ask for help when we need it.
I owe the success I have achieved to the help
of many people; I do not have the time to thank them all, but I need to thank a
few of them. The staff at Morningside Shelter: Knowles, Sara, Paul and Robin,
to name a few. Carrie Storm, who got me into the program that allowed me to go
back to school while taking care of my son, a struggle for any single mother,
My advisor at CCV, Karen Clark, As well as all of my professors and
classmates. Without their faith in me,
and their help, I would never have been able to achieve my AA, much less
receive my acceptance to Smith College in the fall.
A lot of people who know my story tell me I
took the ball and ran with it. Perhaps that is so, but even the best running
back needs their teammates to block for them in order to reach the goal-line.
If it were possible to have a one-man football team, we would. I realize some
of my classmates are too young to have seen Michael Jordan play. While he is
arguably the greatest basketball player of all time, he would not have been
nearly as successful without Scottie Pippen to guard him from the likes of
Magic Johnson.
I also encourage you to be that helping hand
when you can. How you help is not important, we all have our own unique gifts
to offer others. Anything you can give to others benefits us all. Whether it is
tutoring a friend or just offering them words of encouragement; whether it is
spare change in the red bin at Christmastime or volunteering for the United
Way. All of us have something to offer the world and I ask you to share your
gifts with others.
Even if this is the end of your school
career, approach each day with a desire to learn something new. I am the mother
of a seven-year-old with insatiable curiosity. He is constantly asking me and
his teachers questions. My son’s eyes shine whenever he learns something new;
that is when I think he is happiest. He
has a thirst for knowledge that is unquenchable, and I hope all of us approach
life with the same desire to learn. I can only hope that all of us can follow
his example and never stop learning.
Human beings are social animals. We need each other. There are no limits to
what we can achieve when we work together. We are all connected and we need
each other to achieve success. Picture
yourself standing next to a Dam on the verge of bursting. Bricks have come out
and water is pouring through the holes. The bricks are scattered below. You
have three choices. Do nothing and hope the dam holds, pull out more bricks and
flood the town downstream, or put the bricks back in and save the town. We all
have this power. We must realize this power we have to both help others achieve
their dreams and the power to fulfill our own. Now is the time for action.
Once again, I am honored and humbled to be
your graduation speaker. As with many of you, CCV has been a home to me. Our
graduation is therefore a little bittersweet; we will miss our classmates and
professors. I ask of each of you to honor your own achievements, ask for help
when needed and to give of yourself when you can. I truly believe these are the
keys to a happy life when combined with the desire to keep learning.
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