I recently applied to speak at graduation, as did several
other seniors. Someone other than me was chosen to share his or her words on
stage May 9th. Yet, you see, I wrote these words because I wanted to
share them with you, my fellow students, faculty, family and friends. So while
I’ve resorted to my favorite medium of communication—the written word—you can
imagine with me that you’re sitting uncomfortably in your cap and gown, waiting
to hear your name called as you walk across the stage. Or maybe you are a family member or friend who was lucky enough to get a ticket to graduation so you can squirm on the bleachers until your loved one takes their brief stroll across the arena stage. Before that proud
moment, a joyful, but slightly nervous, blonde soon-to-be-graduated student
walks on stage and begins speaking:
“Good morning. My name is Laura Roller and I’m excited to be
graduating with a degree in International Business today. Congratulations to
all of you: fellow students, families and friends. This is a special day!
Honestly I am not sure right now which one scares me more:
graduating and starting life in the “real world” or standing here and
addressing you all. So, for the time being I’m not going to focus too hard on
either one.
Magic. That’s one word I could use to sort of encapsulate
what we’ve had at JBU these past four-ish years. Where else could you have the
opportunity to learn so much from so many people? To make good friends from all
around the country, and maybe the world? Maybe to do some awesome Mock Rock, to
play spy versus spy with squirt guns, to float rubber ducks in the fountain, to
pull hilarious pranks, to stay up until 2 a.m. talking with your roommate
because you can, to worship with nearly the whole campus a few times a week. To
grow and change. To become a better leader. To have your faith deepened and
challenged.
One of the things that makes John Brown University such an
incredibly special place is the people united here. Okay, maybe you’re not as
extroverted as I am, so the prospect of so many people could be a little
overwhelming. But think for a second. We have professors here who have spent
more years studying than we’ve been alive. We have students here from more
countries than states, lending a really cool international flavor to campus
life. We have a rugby team! And since “ring by spring” is still alive and well,
some of us have even found our spouses here. (Holds up left hand with engagement ring, smiles.) The strange new freshmen we met
four years ago, when we were young, nervous, and completely overwhelmed by the
new thing called the “college experience,” have now become the best of our
friends.
The good news is that we are not dying, just graduating. We
will see each other again! Amazing inventions like Skype even keep the distance
from obscuring our faces. Homecoming brings the opportunity to visit JBU and
see our college friends again. I am predicting that it will be tangibly
different, but still very good. I mean, my parents still have college friends
they connect with, even though they graduated…well…a long time ago. When JBU
alumni get together again, it will be amazing to see both what is the same and
what has changed. We’ll come back to campus and realize how young we really
were during college and how much we really have grown and changed since then!
I look forward to the days of “do you remember the time when
we…” and it will be just like old times for that magic moment. Of course, life
will be different. There will be jobs, spouses, children, joy and tragedy, and
a general geographic divergence. The other good news is that the next places we
go will have people too, in some sort of measurable number that can help make
life better if we invest in those relationships too.
Another thing that has made JBU incredible is the
opportunity to learn and grow intellectually. That doesn’t have to stop here
either. Yes, it will be harder to be a self-directed learner outside the
college environment than to have hours of our lives each week devoted to
professors pouring their lives and minds into us. But it can still be done.
Pick up a book, watch an educational video on YouTube, go on a date to a
museum, learn to knit, keep your eyes open and marvel at the world around you.
But definitely, whatever we do, let’s keep learning and making the world a
better place! Our jobs and post-grad lives will provide new opportunities for
learning, too. Maybe it won’t be from a textbook, but we will need to learn
what our bosses want, what our clients need, how to love our family and friends
better. But I beg you, please don’t stop learning.
Finally, we have been able to grow spiritually here. Maybe
not the way we expected. I’m not a super-Christian-missionary-theologian who’s
going to save the world with my passion and love for God. There were times in
my life these past four years that hurt deeply, and my heart was full of
sorrow, darkness and confusion. There were also points of joy, light and
encouragement. And, in hindsight, I am grateful for both. But I have learned
and loved deeply here. I hope the same is true for you. Maybe your main source
of growth was through chapel, or maybe it was Vespers, a small group, a church
you joined, an edifying friendship you nurtured, or a mentor that you sought
out. Maybe college drove you further from God, but the hope of his goodness and
faithfulness still remains deep down.
I walk forward from here with both excitement and
trepidation. A lot of changes are in store for me this next year, as I am sure
they are for you. My little sister is starting college, my dad has a new job, I
am moving to a new apartment and a new town and starting a new job, making new
friends, going to a new church, planning a wedding and getting married…. That’s
a lot of new!
But wherever life takes us and whatever happens from here, I
am grateful that in that newness God’s mercy is also new every morning. That he
has shown himself faithful in the past and that he will do so again in months
and years to come. May it always be true
of us here at JBU… and beyond.”
