CHAPEL HILL – Maybe Ray Lane, former president and chief operating officer of Oracle, was onto something at my college graduation three years ago.
Lane rode into the West Virginia University Coliseum on what was at the time a new invention – a Segway scooter. He said that the moment would likely be all we would remember from the speech and graduation day itself.
“In 2036, when you’re standing where I’m standing now, you’ll be able to say, I don’t remember who my commencement speaker was, but I remember what he rode in on,” Lane said. “This baby is my insurance policy against obscurity.”
That moment of a graduation day filled with pomp and circumstances was one of the few memories of a day, though only three short years ago that has become as much of a blur as the first few months of my freshmen year. To give proper credit to Lane, I had to search through the WVU Web site hoping among all hope the text was still available online.
In a few short weeks, graduates across North Carolina and the nation will experience the same things I experienced just a few years ago. With few exceptions, these graduates of the Class of 2005 will listen to distinguished guests flown in from across the country by university administrators to give a talk that all follow the same premise – how to live your life, how to be successful, and remember to tip your alumni association representative on your way out the door.
The crop of speakers scheduled to speak at North Carolina colleges and universities are a who’s who in the world of sports, politics and business. Wake Forest University will have alumnus and golf legend Arnold Palmer speak. Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno will speak at Winston-Salem State University, while Sen. Richard Burr will address UNC-Pembroke graduates.
Undoubtedly, many of these speakers will use the three premises to a successful graduation speech when they address the Class of 2005. Nothing against the speakers, but after four, five, six, or seven years of college life (depending on if you’re on the “Animal House” Delta Fraternity plan) graduates are more interested in taking a photograph and passing a beach ball than they are listening to an overpaid speaker.
So for those graduates who will soon place those silly slogans on the top of their caps – for the record mine said “Show Me the $” – here are some useful advice and recommendations from a recent graduate old enough to know better, but young enough to remember the college experience.
Here in the Real World – First thing you need to do after you graduate is go to the record store and purchase a copy of Alan Jackson’s “Here in the Real World” and just listen to some of the lyrics. “But here in the real world/It’s not that easy at all,” is one of the famous lines of that song about relationships and life. Take note; just because you now have a college degree, you are not guaranteed gainful employment with a corner office and a secretary that looks like a Bond girl. Employers do not care if you graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill, West Virginia University or even Durham Technical College. They are more interested in your skills and what you offer to the company. If you offer marketable skills, the chances of your employment will be increased. However, if the only skill you acquired from college was how to drink an entire keg in less than 30 minutes, the chances are finding employment will be difficult at best.
Take Responsibility For Your Life – You’re now a college graduate, which means you now have responsibilities to provide for yourself and your family. This is an important task. Save money and be frugal with your paychecks. The idea is plan for the future, and future planning doesn’t necessarily mean buying a brand new PlayStation and making a down payment on that new SUV with that first paycheck.
Tip Your Alumni Representative – Now that you’re out of college, expect in the coming weeks letters from your school asking for you to join the alumni association and contribute back to the school. That decision is up to you what level of involvement you want with your school – some, only during bowl trips and NCAA basketball berths, or none. If nothing else, be proud of where you went to school, even if it means being the only Big East fan in an ACC town.
So there you have it; graduation tips for the Class of 2005 that took less time to read than it takes Pizza Hut to deliver a large supreme and an order of breadsticks.
Lane had the Segway. I’ll settle for that last piece of cold pizza.
Shannon Blosser (sblosser@popecenter.org) is a staff writer with the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in Chapel Hill