THE ULTIMATE
Happy
2014! That would be the same “2014” as
in “Class of 2014.” In just a few months
you and I will be celebrating the culmination of your years of hard work and
learning. Someone you’ll probably forget
will tell you at Graduation about how this is the beginning of an adventure. They will be right about that.
You’re
about to change status. For the first
time since you were a small child, maybe you won’t be able to list “student” as
your occupation anymore. Even if you
continue immediately with your education, it won’t be the same. Professional and graduate students are just
different. You’ll change from being “a
student who is an adult” to being “an adult who is a student” or even “an adult
who was a student.” Any change can be a
little scary, but change also is exciting.
This
is what you’ve been preparing for. When
you’ve been a student for 16 years, it’s easy to forget that it’s all
preparation, not the end in itself.
My
goal as your Alumni Sponsor is to help you move seamlessly from the status you
have now to the one you’ve been working to achieve. I’m not able to do that by myself, of
course. But as your representative of
the Trinity Alumni Association, I have people.
This group that you’re about to join has so much to help you. And they want to. I’m always impressed by the accomplishments
of my fellow alumni in virtually every field of endeavor. There’s a Trinity graduate out there right
now doing exactly what you’d like to be doing with your life.
Those
alumni will help you find your life’s work, just like you’ll help those who
come after you. Alumni also will welcome
you because you’re one of us. Remember
this: You can take the graduate out of Trinity, but you can’t take Trinity out
of the graduate. You’ll always be part
of this place, and it will be part of you.
So
enjoy your ultimate semester, and make it live up to every meaning of that
word. Then, enjoy your new status with
everyone else who has shared that journey.
