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  • as was said earlier it's a beautiful day to celebrate

  • but even more importantly what a beautiful audience and from me today

  • I'm blushing right now for pink

  • that thank you I'm honored and I'm

  • humbled to have the opportunity of representing such a unique and talented

  • collective students today

  • I've learned that in a moment that humility it can be helpful to drop on

  • the words are sewn

  • was much wiser than yourself I would like to begin today

  • I really an excerpt from someone who inspired me to think big

  • from a great thinker in a great doctor

  • who many of us have spent countless hours studying

  • doctor seuss I will begin today by reading an excerpt from all the places

  • you'll go

  • if you know the words your free sing-alongs congratulations

  • today's your day your of great places

  • your of and away your brains in your head

  • yes feet in your shoes you can steer yourself

  • any direction you choose you're on your own

  • and you know what you know you

  • all the one who'll decide where to go all the places

  • you'll go for many of us

  • this is not the first time we have heard these wise words from doctors

  • whether that be seeded politely on the gymnasium floor next to other widely

  • four-year-olds

  • or pack together in an auditorium beloved other key high school seniors

  • at so many points the transition in my life I have found comfort

  • in the journey of are nameless hero trying so hard to figure out where they

  • belong in

  • finally finding it for many of us

  • doctor seuss story is simply that a story

  • however if College has taught as

  • anything let it be this that we should never be afraid to ask a good question

  • that there should be no topic

  • see from critical analysis and that even includes you doctor since

  • when read it as a dog his work stands out

  • me in ways that did not reveal itself fifteen years ago

  • let us examine the title all the places you'll go

  • notice the fact that's used is not say all the spaces you go to me

  • there's something very significant and how we should understand the differences

  • between

  • a space and a place you see a space is physical

  • space is objective space is finite let's

  • try to understand space within the context overall surrounding

  • at this very moment here we are at a space

  • we call Maine law 40,000 square feet of grass

  • a few overarching trees and a couple thousand shares

  • extend this further here we are at a space recall Hamlin University

  • sixty acres suburban lawn stretching between many haha

  • imperious but there are a few dozen breaking concrete buildings

  • several larger white boy several thousand deaths

  • what about this space we call our 71 percent if it covered by oceans and

  • water the other 29 percent it'd

  • composed almost entirely of mountains and desert

  • I know right not the most optimistic wave understanding the world that

  • surrounds

  • now let's understand this concept

  • of place together place is like so many other concepts I've had the chance to

  • learn about these past four years

  • see plays place is a social construct

  • this does not mean place does not matter rather it means that place

  • like our race like a gender like so many of the other identities

  • we identify with matter because of how we ascribe meaning to it

  • as individuals and as a society now let's try do you understand

  • very place that surrounds us at this very moment

  • let's think about this place we call our how improbable

  • for us humans to sprout life from a world that is nearly completely

  • uninhabitable

  • up the mountains we have moved on broken backbones up the rivers

  • redirected by calloused hands up the ingenuity that the people displaced

  • earth are capable of

  • how about this place we call Hamline University

  • the first time sitting down your by some wondering if this is where you really

  • belonged

  • the first night figure out the location all the buildings on campus

  • I playing a mean I came a capture the flag

  • the first time you kissed someone in the blue garden

  • first time he sat in your dorm room in college her mother

  • worried and anxious about the future forgetting that she's

  • almost always the first to call you

  • in here we are today at this place we call

  • Old Main lawn remembering that it is not the grass

  • underneath our feet that makes this moment special

  • it is not the bleachers that we sit up on it is not even the robes

  • we wear the tassels that he came from a capsule even the diplomas

  • we work so hard to receive

  • place matters to put it simply because we matter

  • the most important thing I've learned in my four years at Hamline University

  • has not been calculating dead weight loss or trying to figure out what the

  • allegory of the cave actually meant

  • the most important thing i've learned my four years at Hamline University

  • has been how to negotiate space in place how to make both

  • the people and the environments in my life matter

  • here we are at Old Main lawn

  • celebrating. It is important to remember

  • we did not simply appear in this place today

  • no, movement is an essential action when understanding place

  • as good as the physics department here at Hamline University we have yet to

  • discover the technology of teleportation

  • our presence here is the culmination a

  • journey many decades in the making like the name this hero in Suess' story

  • Oh the places yo will go, oh the places we have been

  • for many of us coming to Hamline was

  • a journey of only a few miles

  • for many others of us St. Paul was a destination literally

  • half a world away and of the mental journey

  • for some we are at the grandchildren of a long line of doctors and lawyers and

  • maybe even pipers

  • for others graduation

  • is a beautiful one hard-fought first with the fam

  • I think by my own mother and father a story far too common

  • throughout this world they fled the country that did not allow them to them to belong

  • spent years in refugee camps along the Thai border

  • came to the United States of America wide-eyed and unsure how this new place

  • would greet them learned firsthand how cruel it can be to be a person

  • with nowhere to call home learned firsthand how important it is

  • to create place for others

  • whether that be your mother and father or parents who had to be both

  • with that be your friend who helped you before you jump what would that be

  • teacher who believed that you could be something greater

  • whether that be yourself when there was no one else there

  • we're all here today because of someone

  • how beautiful is that all of us

  • from all different walks of life sharing this place here today

  • my time here at Hamline has shown me how beautiful this

  • act of sharing can be. Of interacting with communities in world

  • views that I may have never even knew existed

  • finding belonging why these expected

  • even in moments where I've felt most lost my time here has taught me

  • how important it is to create a place for others

  • but with the active creation comes the gigantic responsibility it is not enough

  • to simply

  • create a place where others can feel safe no it is the responsibility

  • all of us to create places where we can feel brave

  • to voice disagreement to empower one another and to belong

  • in order to share placements not simply

  • understand where we are similar or where we agree

  • we must begin understanding how to share our differences

  • because you all alone may be wise

  • you alone strong you artistic

  • you technical you passionate you romantic

  • you reflective put together we

  • all of us together sharing this place we

  • are powerful beyond measure

  • on this day of celebration do not simply see today

  • as the culmination of four years of hard work no

  • not simply see today as the destination finally reached

  • or finish line finally cross

  • see today as a golden opportunity

  • to set forth to share

  • and create place for ourselves and others

  • someone once told me that a moment great discovery

  • it can be helpful to speak the words of someone who

  • has travelled a path much farther than yours

  • on and on you will hike and I know you will hike far

  • and face up to your problems whatever they are you get mixed up

  • of course as you already know you'll get mixed up

  • with many strange birds as you go

  • so be sure when you step you step with care and great tact and remember that life is

  • a great balancing act just never forget to be

  • dextrous and deft never mix up your right foot with your left

  • and will you succeed

  • yes you will indeed 98 and three fourths percent guarantee

  • kid you'll move mountains

  • be your name Buxbaum or bixby or Brady or more

  • highly Van Allen Oshie your of great places

  • today's your day your mountain is waiting

  • so get on your way.

as was said earlier it's a beautiful day to celebrate