The English Channel The English Channel Volume 17 Issue 2 Spring 2017 | Page 26

Student Successes
was trying to write about and so very helpfully
he contributed a suggestion in the form of a pic-
ture, captioned “I don’t always talk to English
majors but when I do I ask for a grande Frap-
puccino.”
thinkers, and writers, and analysts. They are stu-
dents that are great individuals as well as great
citizens.
In all fairness, I did subject this particular friend
to a solid thirty minutes of very vocal self-pity
but in all honesty, comments like that really are
the last refuge of the creatively and the comically
bankrupt. I realize that this is a rather uninspir-
ing turn to take right now, and that it’s probably
not the anecdote most would have chosen (I
certainly would not have, had it not fallen into
my lap so perfectly) but I think it’s an important
one. I think—regardless of whether you’ve stud-
ied Creative Writing, or English, or Cinema
Studies—we have all had these comments at
some time or another.
So my message to all my fellow graduates is very
simple, and it is this: do not let anyone make you
feel small. If you are sitting in this room tonight
you have so many reasons to be so incredibly
proud. A lot of you I have met, and a lot of you
I have not, but regardless of which category you
fall into, I know the kind of students that this
department produces because I’ve spent four
years with them, and those students are amazing
I have spent four years being amazed by many
of you. There was not a single class period that I
did not leave thinking about how intelligent, or
gracious, or kind, someone was. We are not per-
fect. Personally, I am bad at math and talking in
front of large groups of people, and I can’t lift
heavy things. As a group, I think we are often
skilled procrastinators, for better or for worse
(often worse.) Many of us have done terrible
things with semi-colons as well as our caffeine
intake, and you might even say that we put the
fun in functionally chaotic. But we’re also a
group of students with an amazing capacity for
compassion, integrity, and growth, and when it
comes down to it there is no other group of
people that I would be more proud to stand in
front of or as a part of. There is no other group
of people that I have more faith in to constantly
do more, to leave things better and more beauti-
ful than how we found them, and to do it all
with such incredible love and enthusiasm.
Graduates, you have made it through years of
sleep deprivation, of being so stressed that it
feels like you’re behind in six classes even
though you’re only taking four, and whether or
not we have met I am so honored to say that I
learned alongside you. I hope you feel that same
pride.
With that being said, I am going to close before
I do that thing I promised I wouldn’t do where I
get tearful and incoherent. So to the professors
and to the graduates, both: wherever you are go-
ing—whether you’re off to be a part of a new
school, whether you’re hanging around for a lit-
tle bit longer, or whether you’re not entirely sure
what lies in front of you—thank you, congratu-
lations, and it has been a privilege to be part of
your team.
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