The Speech I Never Gave

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 9^th. 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.”