Family, friends, members of the faculty,
and most importantly, my fellow graduates,
I have put quite a bit of thought into what to say to you all today.
After a few nights of staring at my computer screen,
putting off a lab report and an English speaker,
I do believe I have landed on a topic just special enough to do this day some justice.
I am standing here in front of thousands of people,
in front of my professors, my family, President Coleman herself,
and I am going to talk about heating vents, yes, heating vents.
Familiar to most of you students,
high up on the third through sixth floors of the grad library, are study carrels.
These are tiny, suffocating, silence cells, with giant windows,
which allow you to look out over the world;
a world in which you don’t have time to participate,
due to the overwhelming mountain of work,
which comes with following your passion,
but which is always due tomorrow.
Upon entering the carrel, you unpack your backpack, plug in your computer,
and take a sip of your Espresso Royale Latte,
but before diving in, in a final gasp of procrastination,
you turn to your left and you read the heating vent.
Scrawled on the louvers are the thoughts, loves, wishes,
and frustrations that defined our time at this University.
Now, I have to confess that I use this opportunity
to tiptoe around the silent stacks,
hopping from floor-to-floor,
reading as many vents as I could,
and I have selected a few of my favorite comments to share with you.
I have placed these quotes into four categories.
The first three I placed in the category of academia:
I am an idiot.
Je deteste le Francais.
Economics is a tricky subject.
The next three in the category of love: I kissed Tim; wow!
Matt M equals adorable.
I love my mom.
In the category of inspiration: Have a little faith,
be more confident,
you will be okay, just chill.
Finally, there were the quotes in the category of insanity:
Kittens, this was followed by a sketch of kittens.
Look at all the people running around like little ants;
and my personal favorite, I wish I were a Michigan squirrel.
It is certainly a tradition writing on the vents,
and while it is less idolized than stepping on the Block M
after taking your first Blue Book,
it is perhaps more important.
Essentially, these comments are symbolic of
what Michigan demanded of us over the last few years.
We had to get rid of our personal distractions,
so we left them on a heating vent. We knew we needed to study,
regardless of how much we wanted to be at Charlie’s for Trivia,
basking in the sun to celebrate having survived a Michigan winter,
or cheering at the Big House with a 110,000 other May supporting fans.
More often than not, we were in the study carrels, the fishbowl,
or the dude, finishing problem sets, writing papers,
or solving complex engineering problems.
Then there were the quotes from seniors.
They were simple: Graduation 2010, or last final ever.
These final comments, written in our last moments of hard core studying,
exhibit a sense of accomplishment, tinged with disbelief.
It’s the last time we can leave our mark on this crazy school,
both to memorialize ourselves
and to give future students the confidence that survival is possible.
So we have left our mark; maybe in a tiny carrel,
maybe somewhere else, and it’s time for us to leave.
It is time for us to make room for the future generations of Michigan students
and to follow in the paths of those who came before.
We are ready. When we step off this campus as Michigan alumni,
we are going into this world with passion,
we are going with courage, we are going with love,
we are going with a killer education
from one of the most impressive universities in the world.
But most importantly, we are going.