December 19, 2008 - CSU Commencement
Colorado State University
Warner School of Natural Resources
Winter 2008 Commencement Address
December 19, 2008
By Governor Bill Ritter, Jr.
It is a great pleasure to be the Governor of Colorado. There are so many wonderful aspects of this job, governing in a state that has unmatched beauty, great citizens, great institutions like Colorado State University, and so many riches, too plentiful to describe.
One of the privileges of being Governor is that you get invited to give commencement addresses. Last Spring I spoke at Trinidad Junior College, Telluride High School and to Colorado State University's College of Liberal Arts.
And in all of those speeches, I charged the class to go forth and do well, like you would expect a governor to do.
But tonight I am here in a different role, in my primary role, if you will, as August Ritter's dad, father of a graduate. And so I decided to give a different speech of sorts. I believe it is rare that a parent is invited to speak at their child's college commencement. So I will take this opportunity, without pretending I can speak for every parent here, and without presuming I could say all that your own parents would say, to speak to my son, August, and to speak to all of the graduates, as a parent might speak.
And so I begin by saying what every parent wants to hear more than anything else.
We love you. No we don't just love you, we love you dearly. I am absolutely confident I speak for every parent here.
We birthed you, we raised you, we went to your school plays, to your sporting events, to your parent teacher conferences, and even though many of us weren't great scientists, we helped you with science fair. We celebrated your victories, lamented your defeats; when you fell, we dusted you off, picked you up, and urged to go on. Believe it or not, more than anyone else, we know who you are.
We tell you this, on your graduation day, on a day when there is much talk of success. Why, you ask? Because you my son and my daughter, you are our greatest success. You need to know that. You are our greatest success. When the world measures all we have done, and how we have done it, we will tell the world, that our greatest success is sitting on these seats in front of us.
How is that you ask. Are you serious? Yes! What about the houses, and cars, and job with big salaries or lots of power, or both? What about running companies, or making millions, or winning state-wide elections? All of those are good, and actually can be exciting, but compared to the role we were fortunate to have in helping shape your life, they are all second or third fiddle. They simply don't compare.
So then you ask, if that is success then why did I just spend several years of my life laboring for a degree? Wasn't that about being able to get a job, to earn a decent salary. My response is no. You may well get a job, and you may even be paid handsomely in that job. But your degree, this day, it is mostly about you, about the potential that lies within, and about you working toward the most meaningful end -- to FULLY achieve your God-given potential.
And it is about working toward your potential with people you love, and who love you.
In the last few months, the financial markets throughout the world have cratered. The wealth lost in market value has been staggering. It was such a wonderful reminder, and today, should serve as a reminder to you, that creating wealth for the sake of being wealthy, is a fairly useless enterprise. It can topple like a house of cards, in a matter of months, or days, or even hours. But this is not to disparage the wealthy. There are so many examples of people who have worked hard, made millions, and while living well, also have devoted their lives to giving and doing in the service of others.
And so we come to the question, my son and daughter. How do I live to my full potential? I may not want to be a parent, I may not be able to be a parent. I think the answer to how to live to your full potential is still pretty simple. Be passionate, be courageous, and never forget who you are.
Being passionate -- what does that mean? I have said this to August many times, and I have repeated it even in a couple of commencement speeches, but it merits repeating. Find your passion and go do it. To paraphrase one author, "Do not look around and ask what the world needs, find the thing you love and go do it. What the World needs most is more people doing the thing they love." Don't get to be my age or older and say, man I wished I had done this, or that. Be mindful of the poet Whitter's words, "Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the four saddest words, 'it might have been'".
Be courageous. We live in a world where too many people live in fear. And some measure of that fear is understandable. We fear terrorism, we fear climate change, we fear volatile markets, we fear unemployment numbers as we graduate. But here Mark Twain offers the best advice. "Courage is not the absence of fear, but the mastery of it." Or put more quaintly by John Wayne, "Courage is being afraid, but still saddling up".
Take climate change, and now I probably sound more like a governor than a dad, but there is a danger involved regarding climate change if we fail to act. And I mean we. All of us, (but no group better than Natural Resource graduates) must look at the world's climate and the human causes of change and ask ourselves -- "What then must we do?" And we ourselves must change, the status quo is unacceptable, and others will resist, and it will take the courage of your convictions, to say "I am for change."
And finally remember who you are. Remember earlier when I said, we, meaning your parents, your families, we know who you are. We also know that there will be tests in your life, tests that challenge your ethics, your values, that penetrate to the very core of who you are. And you will do well, my son and daughter, you will do well in meeting those tests, those challenges if you always remember exactly who you are. And to end where I began we love you, and we love who you are.
Thank you tonight for indulging a very proud dad.