An interesting, but often overlooked, tidbit or factoid regarding completion of a student's formal education at a college or university is the almost contradictory meaning of the words graduation and commencement. The questions frequently posed by friends and family are, “when are you going to graduate?” “What are you graduating in?” And "what are you going to do after graduation?" Commonly students who have completed their university level studies are referred to as graduates.
Often the feeling is one of completion and even a culmination of sorts. Perhaps the end of structured learning or that somehow magically, with a degree in hand, they will no longer be students. Hopefully neither will be the case. Interestingly the event celebrating their graduation is called a Commencement Ceremony—a formal event marking the beginning. A completely different, even opposite pronouncement to the world—for students we must all remain since there is no end to learning.
What a commencement ceremony is really all about is granting you access to a bigger library, a more varied list of required reading materials, and a much grander petri dish (the world) in which to conduct your own personal experiments.
The word commencement means a dawning, initiation or proem. There’s a new word—proem—meaning opening, forward, prologue, preface and prelude. All more familiar words which bring to mind the real significance and added responsibilities of beginning a new stage in life. A forward looking life loaded with goals, aspirations and expectations. A new journey, an exciting adventure into uncharted waters.
Michael Dell, founder of Dell Computers and the youngest CEO of a fortune 500 company at the time said, “As you start your journey, the first thing you should do is throw away that store-bought map and begin to draw your own.”
Think about it. To be your own cartographer. To chart personal oceans while circumnavigating the world. To set your sails. To face incredible, seemingly impossible challenges, to swing your backpack over your shoulders and embark on a trek to discover passages through, up and over your own insurmountable mountains.
How exhilarating!
Okay, I’ll admit, it can all be a bit overwhelming and even scary at times. Lot’s of times. But you mustn’t let fear or the naysayers stop you. I don’t know what you dreamed about when you fell asleep with your face down in an organic chemistry book at 2 am in the morning. I don’t know what heights you climbed in your imagination as you slipped into a daydream on a Saturday evening after a long day of studying. But I can assure you that I’ve been there too.
I will tell you from experience, remember your dreams. What did you want to be when you grew up? In your dreams were you admired, respected, or successful? Remember what that felt like. When you reached the pinnacle in your dreams who was there standing with you? Was it your friends or family? Who was by your side holding your hand? For me it was my wife Billie and our children.
Remember how you used your imagination to be anything, to do anything and to visit far away places. If you remember far enough back I’ll bet you can probably even remember flying. Can you remember the feeling of weightlessness? The sensation of cool air bathing your face and gently tossing your hair. When you were a kid did you ever stick your head and arms outside of the windows of the car when your dad was driving? Wasn’t that fun? It was just like what you remembered it was like to fly.
Is it silly or nonsensical to dream about flying?
I don’t think so. In fact I believe that dreaming about flying, in essence dreaming about doing the impossible, is revealing. I think that buried somewhere in the undiscovered reaches of our minds are the solutions to the impossible. And that dreaming about flying is a subtle reminder that you can do anything you put your mind to and work with all your heart and soul to accomplish.
“The Moment You Doubt Whether You Can Fly, You Cease For Ever To Be Able To Do It.”
Think about it. Isn’t that what getting an education was really all about. Preparing to do the impossible. Your education was intended to outfit and equip you with, and refine the necessary skills to be a daring aviator, a great explorer, an adventurer and discoverer. Skills including how to observe and take notes, how and what to learn, and how to gather and process knowledge. And most importantly, how to integrate that newly acquired knowledge with your boundless imagination to create the impossible.
“We create our dreams, inventing our imagination.”
Two ordinarily insignificant little creatures, hobbits as they are known in middle earth, stood in a field of corn on the edge of the Shire faced with a sobering realization and an important choice to make.
“This is it,” Samwise said hesitantly.
“This is what?” Frodo questioned.
“If I take one more step, it will be the farthest away from home I’ve ever been.”
“Come on Sam. Remember what Bilbo used to say, ‘it’s a dangerous business Frodo going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.’”
For Sam the Shire represented all that he had grown up knowing. It was familiar, comfortable and secure so far as he knew. And beyond the Shire? The unknown with all of its folklore, tall tales and strange happenings. Not the type of business a normal—minding your own business—Hobbit gets involved in.
Taking the next step, beyond the Shire, was a pensive undertaking and not the kind of thing to be taken lightly.
Each of us will have days like this, with decisions to make—choices that lead beyond the boundaries of our comfort zone into a whole new world. The world outside the Shire, beyond our own comfortable little Hobbit holes.
One such occasion in life is graduation from college. With it comes new journeys, some well thought out and planned and others altogether "Unexpected". Several weeks ago we attended the graduation ceremonies for our son Dean Jr. from BYU Hawaii. It gave me cause to reflect on my own graduation nearly 35 years ago.
As Billie and I packed up to leave Provo, headed for USC's school of dentistry, we were both excited for the change and pensive of the new challenges. I would say we were less apprehensive than Samwise, and more like Frodo in our outlook. After all, for Frodo the anticipated journey was to be a short adventure, nothing on the scale of Bilbo’s epic burglaring, to a nearby town and an inn called the Prancing Pony. That doesn’t sound so bad does it?
Little did Billie and I know that our little journey to the ‘Prancing Pony’ would lead us beyond dental school with two daughters (Brittany and Amanda) joining us along the way, to oral surgery training and the addition of Dean Jr. and beyond into the mines of Moria—starting a brand new surgery practice from scratch. Fortunately our journey did not lead to Mordor, but instead to Sunny Southern California, in Agoura to be specific where we added Mikaela to our growing band of sure-footed hobbits.
In the balmy tropical weather on Oahu's North Shore, as each of the graduates from some 50 different countries stood and moved their tassels to the other side I thought about all of the places in the world that would be blessed by their newly acquired skills and knowledge. Where would they be swept off to? And how could they ‘keep their’ feet as Bilbo Baggins counseled?
The world is indeed a vast place. There are diverse roads we can take. And not all are the same. Some are fraught with detours, where unwary travelers can wander off and become lost. Other paths are uncharted, perilous and every bit as treacherous as the way through the mines of Moria, and the roads leading into Mordor. Where the obstacles of physical hardship are not the only dangers, but also the threat of spiritual injuries and even spiritual death lurk in the deepest shadows. And still others lead to enchanted realms of indescribable beauty and immortal beings.
In the world beyond the Shire there are many Orc and Uruk Hai, seemingly mindless minions employed by the powers of evil who lay in wait to harm or destroy us. And men and women of education and influence, who should know better. But who much like the white wizard Saruman, choose to do wickedly. Of which ancient Treebeard exclaimed, “A wizard should know better!” And they do, but they choose an alliance with evil nonetheless.
There are several times in life when you will face really big decisions and pass important milestones. Graduation from college is one such important milestone. And what you do with that ‘higher learning’ is one of those critical decisions. The motto of BYU is stated this way, “Enter to Learn and Go Forth to Serve.”
Bilbo’s wise counsel to keep your feet to prevent you from being swept off the path applies to each of us. The question is not swept to where, for anywhere off of the straight and narrow path serves Satan’s purposes to thwart your eternal progress. The questions each of us must answer are how can we keep our feet? How can we maintain a firm footing so we don’t trip, slip or fall off of the path that leads us back to our Heavenly Father’s presence?
I believe the answer is found at the heart of BYU’s motto with only slight alteration—Enter Life, Continuously Pursue Learning and Use This New Knowledge to Magnify Your Service.
“The pursuit of knowledge is a lifetime endeavor and a desire and willingness to serve is the best way to keep from being swept off your feet.”