Stephens College Commencement 2007
Approximately
125 graduates participated in the Stephens College Commencement ceremony
on Saturday, May 5 in the John and Mary Silverthorne Arena.
2007
Commencement photos
Commencement Speakers
Dr. Wendy B. Libby
:: Dr. Helen Washburn :: Nikki
Krawitz :: Trebbe Johnson '70 :: Laura
Eisenbaum :: Leslie Kersha
Dr. Wendy B. Libby, Stephens College president
Opening
remarks:Graduates, families, friends and members of the Stephens College faculty, staff and student body, welcome to the Stephens College Commencement exercises for the Class of 2007.
To the parents and families of these graduates: congratulations! We share your pride today as we celebrate these new college graduates. I want to thank you for sharing and entrusting your children with us. It has been a privilege and an honor. They leave the Stephens nest today (hopefully they won’t be back in yours!), and we wish them great happiness on their new journeys.
To the graduates: You are now, officially, Stephens Women. Over the past few years, you have come to realize the deeper meaning in this phrase. You have forged lasting bonds of friendship. You have found your voice. You are ready to take flight.
Your fellow Stephens Women – you will run into them in the most surprising places – are your cheerleaders, your support group, your divine Stephens light. No matter the generations or geography that may separate you. Because you are a Stephens Woman.
It is a distinction that also gives you roots, that motivates and inspires you to greater things. The Ten Ideals is a part of this distinction (read about the Ideals in your program). Beyond the “number 10” on a few mortarboards today signifying individual Ideals, the Ten Ideals as a whole plays a part in each of your lives.
We marched past the Ideals in the star inset in front
of LRW as a reminder of the strengthening the Ideals bring about in
our souls – instilling in you courage, informed intelligence,
sensitivity, independence, respect, creativity, belief, support for
others, a sense of responsibility, and an ability to lead.
These Ideals are as important to carry forth into the world as anything
you have learned in the classroom.
At this time, I would like to recognize the members
of the platform party who share the stage with me today. Seated behind
me are members of the Board of Trustees, key administrators, class officers
and our commencement speakers. Please join me in thanking the members
of the platform party for their contributions to Stephens College.
Closing remarks:
Thank you graduates, for continuing the tradition of a gift to the President
at Commencement. Your love and commitment to Stephens is inspiring and
will not be forgotten.
To our new graduates, the Class of 2007:
We have taught you to find your voice, to assert yourselves, to make
an impact. Well-behaved women rarely make history, right?
But equally important are these words from William Arthur Ward, an American
author, editor, pastor and teacher:
“We must be silent before we can listen.
We must listen before we can learn.
We must learn before we can prepare.
We must prepare before we can serve.
We must serve before we can lead.”
It is not enough to speak – you must have something vital to say.
So observe and participate in the world around you. Be humbled, awestruck
and empowered by what you see.
You might take a lesson from Ban Ki-Moon [pan.gi.mun] – a former
South Korean diplomat who is now the secretary-general of the United
Nations. He has a more modest and unassuming style than his predecessor,
Kofi Annan – who was known for his high-visibility and outspokenness.
So how did such a self-effacing individual become the head of the United
Nations? First, he was fired from the South Korean Foreign Ministry.
He accidentally left what The New York Times calls “a positive
mention of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in a joint communiqué
with Russia at a time when the Bush administration had decided to abandon
it.” It required a public apology from the South Korean president
– not a good thing.
He then had what he called a “jeon-hwa-we-bok experience,”
and turned “misfortune into a blessing” to cite a well-known
Korean phrase. Another Korean diplomat, who just happened to be the
President of the General Assembly of the U.N., asked him to be his chief
of staff. And thus, Ban Ki-Moon ended up at the U.N. – and eventually
in the secretary-general position, where he’s primed to affect
broad change.
Ban Ki-Moon says this about his own retiring nature:
“Modesty is about demeanor, not about vision and goals. It does
not mean the lack of commitment or leadership.”
Work hard. Be patient. Care about people. Believe in yourself. Never
stop learning. And turn your misfortunes into blessings. This is what
it means to be a Stephens woman (or man!), and a leader.
Congratulations, Class of 2007!
Dr. Helen Washburn, chair of the Stephens College Board of Trustees
Remarks:
I am delighted to be here to speak on behalf of the Stephens College Board of Trustees. As a Columbia resident and a former, longtime women’s college president myself, I am particularly proud of your accomplishments, and the ways in which you have enriched the Stephens community and Columbia during your time here on campus.
Cherish the significance of this day and of your years here at Stephens. Take delight in new beginnings and in the path that stretches before you. You are now Stephens women. You can do anything. May your connections to Stephens College – and to each other – be as strong as ever.
On behalf of the Board of Trustees, congratulations to the graduates of the Class of 2007 and their families.
 |
| Stephens College President Wendy B. Libby hugs Nikki Krawitz after receiving the Four-Fold Girl Award. |
We have a special diploma today to recognize someone
who, along with most of our graduates, is completing four years at Stephens
College. Wendy Libby, like most of the members of this senior class,
began her tenure at Stephens in the fall of 2003. While here she has
brought Stephens back to life. Buildings have been renovated; enrollment
of students has increased; the finances of the College have been stabilized;
and faculty and staff are optimistic about the future. She has become
a heroine in the Columbia community and been recognized by the Chamber
of Commerce and the League of Women Voters for her significant contributions
to our city.
Dr. Libby is loved and respected by the students. She knows their names,
attends their events, and entertains them in her home. Dr. Libby was
instrumental in reintroducing the tradition of the Ten Ideals
and has become a role model for these qualities that Stephens believes
are important to the character of Stephens women.
In preparing for today’s celebration, those of us working on it were racking our brains as to how we might appropriately recognize our dear Wendy. In the process we discovered that back in the long ago history of Stephens College there existed an award for a special Stephens woman. It was called the Four-Fold Girl Award. The Four-Fold Girl was the senior woman who best combined in her make up the qualities of all of the Ten Ideals. Her character was a compound of the leadership qualities in mental, physical, social and spiritual life.
Nikki Krawitz, chair of the Academic Affairs committee, Board of Trustees
Remarks:
Because of the great impact teachers have on the lives of their students, it is fitting that we honor our distinguished faculty and advisers. Today we would like to especially recognize this year’s recipient of the DISTINGUISHED TEACHING AWARD: Professor Wayne Keene, please stand.
We are thankful for Professor Keene’s contributions to Stephens. To the business and marketing department at Stephens, he brings a passion for teaching, a wealth of experience and a dedication to his students. And, on Wednesday this week, he and his wife brought twins (one boy, one girl) into the world. Congratulations on all counts!
We would also like to recognize two faculty members who are retiring this year: Professors John Blakemore and Andy Walker. Please stand.
They have taught at Stephens for a combined total of 53 years, and we are thankful for their devotion to their students and the Stephens community. To our Mass Media department, Mr. Blakemore brought considerable agency experience, fresh ideas and a myriad of business contacts into his teaching. Dr. Walker – Harvard and Yale educated – taught history and brought us new ways of thinking about the social sciences and the global village we live in. Thank you, John and Andy, for enriching our community.
They are not alone in doing this: Each of our faculty has made significant contributions to the College, to their profession, and to the hundreds of students they have taught over the years.
Would all of the faculty of Stephens College please stand and be recognized.
Trebbe Johnson '70, keynote speaker
Stephens alumna Trebbe Johnson '70 of Thompson, Pa., is the author of “The World is a Waiting Lover: Desire and the Quest for the Beloved” and the creator/director of Vision Arrow, a company that offers assistance in personal transformation through spiritual seeking and adventure travel. She led a book discussion and taught several classes during a visit to Stephens earlier this year in January.
Speech
transcript:THE FIERCE LOVER, THE ROYAL CHILD AND THE REST OF YOUR LIFE
Hello, Stephens graduates, and congratulations! I am so excited and honored to be here today, thirty-seven years after my own graduation from Stephens.
I’d like to tell you a story, which relates to where you are today and to the world you’re stepping into. It’s a story that comes from Benin in West Africa, and I think you’ll find you have something in common with all the major characters.
This is a story about a handsome prince, a young man who will one day inherit the realm. But this is a prince who lives a very isolated and protected life, because, when he was in his mother’s womb, a medicine man told his parents something that made them very fearful. He told them that if their son ever knew the love of a woman, he would immediately die.
Well, of course, the parents wanted to protect their beloved son. So, when he grew up, they build a special house for him, and all around it, they erected seven tall, impenetrable walls. In each wall, there was only one entry, and in front of each entry paced a ferocious dog. At the seventh and final entry, the one closest to the prince’s room, two guards kept watch at all times. And whenever the prince left this fortified house, his guards kept careful watch over him.
Of course, whenever you have a story in which there are so many rules and restrictions, you have to have a way for those prohibitions to be broken wide open. So, one day, when the prince and his guards were in the marketplace, a beautiful young woman named Ahla managed to get close to him. She had heard the story of the mysterious, protected prince, and she was determined to meet him. So she made her way close to him and greeted him. The prince looked at her. She looked at him. And in that moment the two of them became absolutely fascinated with each other.
Immediately the guards saw what was happening. They surrounded the prince, led Ahla away, and returned the young man to his protected house.
But Ahla knew what she wanted. She was determined to find her prince again. So one night soon afterward, she put on her best clothes, prepared some corn paste in a pot, and set out on her mission. Quietly she approached the prince’s house. At the first gateway, she tossed corn paste to the dog and, as she had planned, it gobbled up the treat long enough for her to slip through the gate. This she did also at the second doorway, the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth. And, when she reached the seventh and final gateway, luck was with her, for the guards were all sound asleep. Ahla opened the door to the prince’s room. He looked at her. She looked at him. Passion flared between them and they flew into each other’s arms.
And when the morning sun rose, Ahla awoke and looked over at the prince. And it just was as the medicine man had predicted. He was dead.
All the realm went into mourning. The price was laid out on a bier and plans were made for his funeral. Then a stranger arrived in town and sought out the queen and king. “I may be able to bring your son back to life,” he told them. “But you will have to follow my instructions very carefully. You must build a fire all around the prince. If anyone can make their way through the flames and reach his side, they can restore him to life.”
“I can do this,” said the king. “This is my son. This is the person who will one day govern the realm. I will save him.” But the king could not get through the flames and had to retreat.
“I will save him,” declared the queen. “This is my son. I carried him in my womb for nine months. I will save him.” But she could not get through the flames either and had to back away.
The king and queen and all the people of the realm sank into an even deeper mourning. Their hopes had been raised and now they were dashed again. But then Ahla came through the crowd. “I will save the prince,” she said, “for I love him with all my heart.”
And Ahla made her way through the flames, step by step, until she reached the prince’s side. And all the people in the realm were astonished when, just a few minutes later, Ahla and the prince appeared, alive and beaming with joy and walking hand-in-hand.
Like all good myths, this story of Ahla and the prince survives because it keeps instructing us. It tells us about ourselves. It shows us where we are in our lives and where we need to get to. It shows us the obstacles that hold us back and it gives us a way forward. And it does this by placing us in the role not just of one character—who among us doesn’t want to identify with Ahla—but all the characters.
So where are you, Stephens College graduates of 2007, right now, in this story?
You can think of the Prince, the Royal Child as the unformed one, the one who will be in charge of the realm. All the efforts in the story go toward the shaping and influencing of the Royal Child. He is tucked away, awaiting development, protected. Some of you may feel this character has a very big presence in you right now. For 21 or 22 years, you’ve had many of your road maps laid out before you: school, high school, college. A certain number of classes you had to take and credits you had to earn. Now, you’re stepping out beyond the protective walls. The Royal Child in you may be feeling anxious. Maybe she wants to stay safe and sound and unchallenged behind those safe and fortified walls.
Yet the Royal Child has to awaken! And what he—or she—awakens to is the passionate determination of the Fierce Lover. The formative self, awakens to desire and responds. The old self, the one that simply does what it’s told, that lets others speak for her, that doesn’t know enough to respond to love—that self must die for the passionate self, the ruler of the realm to come to life.
When we last meet the prince, he himself is walking through the flames, holding hands with Ahla. He is coming forward to meet his people. He has been awakened to his authentic self and he is ready. In the same way, you are saying goodbye to the safety and protection of the inner palace and walking out to meet the world that is awaiting you like a lover.
Another of the important characters in this story are The Parents. The Parents are the protectors. They want to keep their Royal Child safe, and they think the way to do that is to shield him from passion. In their view, this means protecting him from experiencing life itself. They don’t want love to kill him. So they hide him away behind walls and give him guardians to make sure that he never feels desire and love. They think being safe is better than being passionate and authentic. I’m not talking here about your real-world parents. This is all about you, your own inner Protective Parents. These inner voices are innate in us and related to the good, healthy survival instincts we all have, but they’ve gotten very sophisticated as we humans have evolved, and they don’t know when it’s time to keep quiet and step back. They’re very good at rushing to the supposed aid of the Royal Child and convincing you that things are okay as they are and likely to be dangerous in the future if you take risks. Why look for trouble? they say. You’re not ready. Somebody else is more qualified. You’ll be laughed at. You’ll invite people into the grand and glorious vision of your life and no one will come.
Finally there is Ahla, the fierce lover. She walks through the marketplace with grace and poise. She is skillful. She can assess the situation and figure out how to move through it in a way that will benefit her as the awakener of love in the realm. We can picture her as she goes, confident, aware of everything around her, aware that she commands attention and also that she chooses carefully what she turns her attention to.
The Fierce Lover in you knows exactly who you are in the ground of your being. She’s that force in you that has been in you all your life, guiding you through the flames to what you love: your friends, the subjects in school that most intrigued you, the books you loved, the places that felt like home to you, the teachers, the people you fell in love with, the social and political and environmental causes that inspired you to action.
You are all very Fierce Lovers today. You have gone through four years of college. Some of you changed your major, because you recognized that the original course you were on did not feed your soul. Some of you have always known what it was you needed to do in the world. Many of you have already taken important steps to establishing yourself in the career of your choice. Some of you attended college through serious financial difficulties. Others overcame great physical or psychological challenges. One of the most wonderful things about Stephens College is that the teachers and administration here really want you to love what you do—both as a student and in all the other aspects of the world that you make your own. You have had good training in being a Fierce Lover.
And now you step into the realm that is the life you will make.
Only the Fierce Lover can awaken the Royal Child—not protection, not the same way of doing things day after day, not taking the safe route, not doing what anyone else thinks must be done. You have to walk through the fire to get to what you really love.
The great German poet Goethe says this in his poem,
sometimes translated as “Holy Longing” or “Soulful
Yearning.” He compares the wild desire to experience, to be utterly
true to yourself, to live with passion, to act with meaning and authenticity
to the moth who is compelled to fly into the flame.
Distance matters nothing now.
Flying you come, flying and spellbound,
And at last, seduced by the light,
You, butterfly, are burned alive.
And as long as you haven’t lived this:
Just this: to die and so to become,
You are only a dull visitor
On the dark earth.
This is not a call to burn up or burn out. It’s not a call to sacrifice health, well-being, meaningful relationships and become a workaholic. It is a call to go after what you love. To hurl yourself into the brightness of what warms you, fascinates you, beguiles you. To discover who you truly are by doing what you truly love.
Myths are stories that keep on giving us their lessons. They aren’t over and done with. We get to keep reliving them every day and learning from them. That’s where the “rest of your life” part comes into this story. So the story of Ahla and the Royal Child will play out, over and over and over in your life, every single day—especially if you have the good fortune to be attentive to their presence.
You are particularly likely to feel the living force of this story when you are on the threshold of something new, ready to step into something that challenges you in brand new ways. Now, once again, the Royal Child, the ever evolving and growing part of you, is being called to come out of hiding and enter into the world more visibly! Then the fear rises forth. “No, no, I’m not ready! I’m too small! I’m too meek and unprepared! I need somebody else to figure it out for me.”
So the Protective Parents of you, who want to keep you safe, rush to the rescue. “That’s right. Hold back. Don’t call attention to yourself or something bad might happen. Stay safe.”
When you hear these voices, feel these inclinations, just know: this is normal. There is nothing wrong with you! Recognize the Protective Parents of your inner self and silently thank them for wanting to take such good care of you. If you are aware of the persuasiveness of them, it actually means you haven’t turned your life over to them. You’re aware of them and so you can also be aware of that other voice inside you, the voice of the Fierce Lover of yourself. So then you turn to the Fierce lover and find out what she wants.
The Fierce Lover of you walks with grace and beauty. She knows what makes her come alive. This is true not just of career, of creativity, but of being true to your authentic self in all conceivable ways. The Fierce Lover is present when you broach a new idea in your workplace, when you embark on a new creative path that hasn’t been tried. She’s in you the way you respond to your friends, the way you resolve arguments with those you love, the way you treat airline personnel when the plane is delayed and you have an important meeting to get to. In small ways and large, in wonderful, celebratory times and in times when you feel like your whole world is ending, the Fierce Lover is your ally, your inspiration, your courage.
Walking through the flames means living with passion. It means loving what you do so much that you lose track of time. It means choosing friends and lovers and colleagues who not only support your commitment to your own flame, your own passion, your calling but insist on it, as you insist on their commitment to their flame and passion.
You can look at the Royal Child in this story in yet another way. The Royal Child, the sleeping, unkissed being is also all those people in the world who need what you have to give them. Their lives will be less complete, smaller, less passionate, more somnolent until you and only you come through the flames to awaken them to their own passion. This, too, will happen in small ways and large, in good times and bad.
So be Ahla, the Fierce Lover, every day. Every single day find some flames to walk through! In other words, every day do one thing you’re afraid to do and know you must do. This doesn’t mean taking dangerous chances, but it does mean doing things that you feel you may not be quite ready to do… and that the Ahla of you knows you are absolutely ready to do and must do for your soul to thrive.
May you walk through the flames with love, joy,
and passion today and every other day, and may you fall in love with
your world and it with you.
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Laura Eisenbaum, undergraduate program representative
Eisenbaum, who will earn a B.S. in Fashion Marketing and Management with minors in Finance and Public Relations, is the president of SGA. Following graduation, she will work as the assistant catering director for ARAMARK Higher Education at Arizona State University in Phoenix.
Speech transcript:I have a confession to make. I don’t want to be here right now. In fact, I’ve been dreading this day for the past year. Ever since two of my best friends walked across this stage last May and left me for Mississippi and New York, I knew I didn’t want to say goodbye to Stephens. So, I did what any terrified senior in college would do, I denied that I was graduating. I waited until the very last day to turn in my graduation papers to the registrar, I went to my advising appointment last month even though I had no classes to register for this fall. Truth be told, I scheduled two appointments with my advisor because the first 30 minutes just didn’t seem like enough time. I waited until the very last day to order my gap and gown, I didn’t order graduation invitations, I haven’t started packing and whenever anyone brought up graduation, I always replied with the same answer, “I don’t want to talk about it” And when I heard there would be 33 more graduates this May than usual and space would be limited, I offered to postpone my graduation until next May. You know, to take one for the team. Isn’t that what any good student government president would do?
About three weeks ago, I was in Doug Lange’s office, our vice president for operations and facilities, complaining, denying, worrying - take your pick - about graduation. And if you ask Doug or anyone else that works in his office, this was not the first time I was chewing his ear off with my graduation woes. However, the response he gave me that day really hit home. He told me something that we can all take with us after we leave Stephens. He said that we have no reason to be sad because graduation is not about saying goodbye; it is about coming together to celebrate our achievements during our time here. We don’t have to say goodbye to anyone and we can pick and choose the relationships that are important and keep them no matter the distance.
I thought about what he said for the next week and really questioned it. Could graduation really be a time of celebration? How can we be happy to leave a place we call home and the people we call family? But the more I thought about it, I realized the fact that we have not only discovered this family, but have been lucky enough to form relationships with them is reason enough to celebrate. Stephens has become a place of comfort, a place of belonging, something we all feel but really can’t explain to the outside world.
Throughout our time here, we developed a family. This began on our first day, when we entered this arena for registration and met the people we would spend the next four years with. It is here that we had a taste of what Stephens had to offer, when we truly began to discover the journey we were about to begin and the people we would spend it with. The sense of family began to form and it was only day one.
Then we met our friends. We began as a group of strangers that soon blossomed into family. We did everything together. We went to class together; skipped class together, lived, worked, played, grew, and became Stephens women together. We relied on each other for support, comfort and guidance.
Our relationships with our professors evolved both inside and outside of the classroom. Not only did we look up to our faculty for knowledge, we looked up to them for inspiration. They opened us up to new worlds and different points of view. We reassessed and redefined who we are and what we stand for. We formed strong bonds and another part of our family was established. With access to their home phone numbers, cell phones numbers and home addresses, what more could we ask for besides a credit card number? As our family continued to grow, so did our belief that we could be successful.
To succeed, we must first believe that we can. There is one person that has believed in our institution since her arrival four years ago. A person who is the reason we were able to discover our Stephens family and grow –according to our mission statement – into women of distinction. This person is our president, Wendy Libby. This is a woman who has been described as fearless by her peers. President Libby has described Stephens as “Innovative and gutsy. Serious and sincere. Elegant and classic. ” However, I think she could be speaking about herself as she embodies all of these same characteristics. She believed in the mission of this institution, staff, faculty, alumnae and of course, us - the students. Thank you, President Libby, for showing us the type of women we could all become and most of all, for believing in us.
Now our time as Stephens students has come to a close. It is now time to move on and show the world what Stephens women are made of. And now, with courage in our hearts, we take a deep breath, and begin to design the life we want to live as best we can. So today I will not say goodbye, but good day. And I leave you with the words of Carrie Bradshaw. I know she’s not a Stephens woman or a famous philosopher, but she is someone almost every woman in this room knows and she has a shoe collection to die for. “After all, seasons change. So do cities. People come into your life and people go. But it's comforting to know the ones you love are always in your heart. And if you're very lucky, a plane ride away.”
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Leslie Kersha,
Division of Graduate and Continuing Studies representative
Kersha, who earned her M.Ed. in Counseling,
is a counselor at Rock Bridge High School in Columbia, where she previously
taught English. She earned B.A. degrees in secondary education and in
independent studies from Columbia College.
Speech transcript:
As I thought about how I’d like to begin this morning, I kept
coming back to a visual of myself as a little girl. My parents had a
room in our basement that was a playroom for me and my little brother.
I took over 
one
large corner of that room and made it into my own personal little classroom.
I had a desk, a chalkboard, my father was a principal so he brought
me an occasional teacher’s version of a text book, and I made
many, many worksheets about all different subjects. I remember spending
quite a bit of my recess time in elementary school making up worksheets,
and when I got home, I could literally spend hours in that play room
teaching my imaginary class.
Some would say perhaps I’ve been lucky because I have always known
that my calling in life is to teach. I spent four years teaching English
in a traditional classroom setting. One of the reasons I chose to teach
English was because of the life lessons I could talk with students about
from the literature we read. While teaching was definitely challenging
and rewarding, I began to realize that there are many other environments
that would also allow me to teach in different ways. I had started instructing
fitness classes and found one of my passions in teaching yoga. Through
my experiences I was learning what I truly wanted to do was to try to
help people learn how to live more fulfilled, healthy lives. This led
me to pursue my Master’s Degree in Educational Counseling. And,
here I am today.
I realize that each and every one of us in this room has a very individual,
unique and valuable story that has lead up to being here today. And
it is through the telling of my story, that I hope to illustrate one
of three important life-lessons: This lesson is that each one of us
truly has the power to create the life we want. You—in this moment,
are creating your life through your thoughts and actions.
It really does begin with what and how you think. And, if perhaps you’re
not sure what you think, a place I’ve found myself many times,
you must then challenge yourself to get still, block out all the messages
from a world that likes to tell you what you should be thinking and
should be doing, and listen to your inner voice and wisdom and then…trust
that which you truly already know.
When we begin to recognize our thoughts, as long as we are open to the
opportunities life has to offer us—this is a very important piece
of the puzzle—we must be open, these thoughts then turn into intention
which can then lead to action, and things very often, and sometimes
mysteriously, fall exactly into place.
So, please recognize and embrace the fact that you have been and are
continuing to create your life, and on a very important day as is today….allow
yourself to celebrate—celebrate this life you are creating. Always
trust that all your hard work and dedication is moving you in the direction
of your dreams.
The second very important lesson I have learned throughout my life is
the importance of creating a life of balance. I have always been a very
motivated, driven, sometimes extreme, constantly in fast-forward mode-type
person. While in some respects these characteristics can be quite a
positive force in my life, if I don’t keep them in check, I open
myself to becoming sick, tired, burned out, and living a life that is
passing me by while I’m rushing around getting things checked
off my to-do list.
If this living in a state of fast-forward sounds familiar to you, I
encourage you to create some balance—slow down, pay attention,
recognize there is a time for planning and goal setting and thinking
about the future— but most of the time we need to stop thinking,
analyzing, moving and take a deep breath, giving our full attention
to what is going on right now.
This lesson is one I find very challenging to fully integrate into my
life on a daily basis. Our society is not one that rewards mindfulness
as much as it does multitasking; however, I so believe in the power
of being present in each moment of life and creating balance that I
will continue to try and realize when I am thinking in the future, I
will then take a deep breath, and recognize what is happening right
NOW.
Lastly, and probably one of the most rewarding lessons I have learned
is the importance of living with a spirit of gratitude. I have had a
very, very blessed life. I realize this fully. I also know that there
isn’t a day that goes by that I am not consciously thankful for
the wonderful family I have, my husband, my friends, my pets, my home,
my car, my job, my education...I truly could go on and on. When we recognize
and are grateful for all the blessings—even the small ones, and
that’s important, on those days when it feels like nothing is
going quite right, find something, anything you can be grateful for—and
when we are grateful, life cannot seem lacking. Instead, we see clearly
that life is abundantly full and promising.
While I am no longer that little girl playing teacher in my playroom,
but now am a grown-up living life in a very fast-paced and seemingly
complex world, I always try to keep the lessons I have learned in the
forefront of my mind and let that guide how I live.
1. We do have the power to create the life we desire—we are pure
potential.
2. We must constantly strive to find balance and presence in our life—we
can always choose to take a deep breath, slow down, and live mindfully.
3. When we live in a state of gratitude, life is full and rewarding—we
must find something everyday to be thankful for.
Today, I am thankful for my graduate degree, for all those people—especially
my husband—who supported me on my journey here, and I am thankful
for this opportunity to speak to you. I wish each of you a balanced
life full of true joy and inner peace. So, celebrate yourself and this
life you are creating. Thank you.
