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[ Silence ]
>> Welcome to Mr. President, the Board of Trustees,
administrators, faculty and family members.
Your support has been monumental in our journey to this day.
Above all though, welcome to the soon
to be graduates, the Class of 2012.
I can hardly believe that in a few short days,
we will have moved into the next phases of our lives.
Congratulations to you all.
[ Applause ]
>> I'd like to first share a quote from one
of Dartmouth's most famous alumni, Dr. Seuss.
If things start happening, don't worry, don't stew.
Just go right along and you'll start happening too.
More so than most class' experiences,
our four years here have been marked
in Dr. Seuss' words by things happening.
We were greeted from DOC orientation trips
by the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.
And now as we graduate, we face lingering recession
and high unemployment.
Our Dartmouth experience has been bookended
by two exceptional national acts of inclusion with the election
of Barack Obama as our country's first African-American president
during our freshman year and his recent support
of same sex marriage.
Even in our own community...
[ Applause ]
>> Even in our own community, our experience has been shaped
by changes, including alterations to the dining plan,
articles about Dartmouth in the press
and the closing of the river docks.
In many cases, these events have changed the course
of the college experience we expected to have.
It can be challenging to change plans and scary
to feel uncertain about the future.
However, in my experience at Dartmouth,
the events that have changed my path have led to some
of the most rewarding experiences during my
college career.
The first of these events was before I even arrived
at Dartmouth when I somehow got assigned to,
to a rock climbing orientation trip,
despite my fear of heights.
When the day to climb arrived, it was raining,
making the rocks wet and slipper.
I wish I could tell a story of struggle
and ultimately epic success but the truth is,
throughout the climbing trip, I was never able
to reach the top of the wall.
However, the experience of having to change my expectations
about what my trip was going to be like was the first
of a long sequence of course corrections
that eventually made me a much more balanced
and flexible person.
The realization that it is okay to break plans
and change your mind eventually led me to choose to minor
in studio art, something I never would have done had my initial
idea of what my college experience would be
like [inaudible] out exactly as I had planned.
Dartmouth has a long history of achievement.
This community has given rise to Robert Frost, Pilobolus
and even the fictional character, Stephen Colbert,
along with countless others.
Our class' experience uniquely prepares us to join these ranks
because we have been forced to grapple with so many
of the unexpected course corrections.
I have a lot of faith in the talents and skills
of the people I have met over my four years at Dartmouth.
As we look excitably forward, let's not forget
where we are right now and how the divergences
from what we expected when we first arrived freshman year led
us to where we are today.
We have been armed with the flexibility
to consider many more options than we can fathom.
I have no doubt that our class will, in Dr. Seuss' words,
start happening if we haven't already.
It has been an honor to be part of an amazing group of students
and now, let's graduate.
[ Applause ]