Greetings from Claudia Lucia Rodezno, Class President
CLAUDIA LUCIA RODEZNO: Greetings, Class of 2009. We have gathered today to celebrate and be celebrated. Families, friends, Wheaton faculty, staff, and alumni have come today to applaud our achievements. Let's all take a moment to applaud them once again in thanks for supporting us throughout these long four years.
We have spent approximately 960 days at Wheaton. And though for four years it has seemed like we have spent many more days, today it feels like it has been swift and nimble. From the moment we are born until 960 days after, we have learned to crawl, sit, stand on our own. We have learned to walk, talk, and learned to cry to get what we want from our caregivers.
In the 960 days we have spent at Wheaton, we have seen it all as well. We saw a much-needed introduction of soft serve in Emerson, an unfortunate fire in the library, and Albi in leopard tights also creating that renowned fitness program "Abs With Albi."
On a different level, major global affairs also occurred during our 960 days at Wheaton. Facebook went public and anyone with a valid e-mail address joined. The Red Sox won their second World Series in three years after not winning once in 86 years.
Off-campus gourmet dining experiences were amplified for the Wheaton community when Mansfield Crossing opened. And unlike us at Wheaton, the Target Store in Easton hasn't been there for 960 days. When it opened in 2007, the shopping possibilities were once again enlarged for Wheaton students. Senior Cory Kraft was quoted back then by the Wire for saying, "The new addition of a Target in close vicinity offers consumers a trifecta of shopping bliss. I'm really excited!"
Global news, however, has not been advertising an assortment of possibilities. On the contrary, the current situation seems somber and bleak. So browsing the job market seems to not be offering bliss after all. And unlike Cory, we might not all be excited. Despite that, the liberal arts education we have obtained at Wheaton has provided us with the tools to see the larger picture and not only the isolated events. It has endowed us with the means to analyze situations in context and our role in society and in the world at large.
We have been fortunate to grow in a community that allows for many possibilities and choices. Wheaton offered exciting courses such as religion and animals, computing for poets, and quantum chemistry. And by taking these electives we were able to make sure we were choosing the right major and the right minor.
Upon graduating, we have a choice of working, going to grad school, doing research, traveling, or spending time at home. Having such a wide array of alternatives in life is significant as it ensures that we choose the correct path, the one that really pertains to us.
We have choices and that's great. However, that is not enough, because one question usually follows: How do I know that I have made the correct choice? This question is one that we have faced before and one we will confront for years to follow as co-workers, scholars, professors, spouses or parents.
At a school very different from Wheaton, at times very distinct than ours, a group of students faced the same challenge on how to test the decision of following a particular course. The professor decided to tell them his reasons for being a teacher at that particular school. In his response the students found the answer to their question about making the right decision.
His reason for being a teacher lies behind me, engraved in the corners of the Wallace Library. He told them, "I came that you may have life and may have it abundantly." This answered more than their needed questions, but also offered them guidance for the years to come.
Today, after the excitement of commencement is over and we try to pack our rooms into one single car, most of us will face the same challenging decisions. And more than fearing the options, we fear the consequences and the uncertainty. We have been told that these past four years had to be the best of our lives and if they haven't been, if some of us didn't make lasting friendships or if your pictures weren't in last night's slide show, we feel we have wasted our time. But we haven't. Because our time at Wheaton has been something different to each one of us. And if we use what we have learned to make decisions that bring abundant life, that will lead us into our best years.
Nine hundred and sixty days from today we will all be in very different places, countries, and engaged in different activities. But in 960 days, we will still be the class that jumped in the pond with President Crutcher, the first class to reach 98 percent class participation, and the same class that gave the class council such a hard time about Rosecliff tickets.
Seniors, there is pride in graduating in 2009. Congratulations for all of our achievements as a class, including the accomplishments each one of us has individually reached on this date. Thank you.
