my graduation speech

Good evening everybody. Two weeks ago, Leah Weich called me up and asked if I would be the graduation speaker. Right away, I said “yes” and then right after I hung up, I said “oh no”. OH one more thing, she told me it had to be twenty minutes long. Twenty minutes!! This should be no problem coming from Lang where we have to give these presentations in class but to stand up in front of people and talk without anyone talking back for 20 minutes. I got nervous and called my mother who was so happy for me. But then when I told her it was twenty minutes, she asked me what I was going to talk about for twenty minutes. I said “myself”. She thought I would have no problem.

I actually will only speak briefly about me to introduce myself. Many of you may not know who I am or how I got to Lang, but I think Lang and I needed to meet. I transferred here when I was 24 years old in the fall of 2003. Three months into my new college experience, I was diagnosed with leukemia on December 3, 2003. The doctors told me a year should be taken off. I was in complete remission by May of 2004. I attended Lang again the following year. In the fall of 2005, within two weeks of classes, I relapsed. My grandmother jokingly said to me, “Whenever you attend that school in the city, you get sick again? You think it’s something in the air there?”

My doctor told me I needed a bone marrow transplant and would have to take my graduating semester off. After one month of re-induction chemotherapy this past winter and a brief battle with the flu, I had a bone marrow transplant in April 2006. When August came, I asked my doctors if I could continue my education because I really wanted to graduate. Also, the student loan officers were after me, so I needed to continue with school to avoid them for a few more months. I have taken three online classes this semester and worked with the head of psychology to graduate. I can’t thank Lang enough; the teachers, my advisors and all the people behind the lines who worked with me to allow me to get here.
Eugene Lang’s College Mission has been to foster the highest aims of social justice, political responsibility, and cultural awareness.




USA TODAY had an article in July of this year titled, “ Should Kids Be Left Fortunes or Be Left Out?” The article begins:
Actor and playwright Stephen Lang, 54, remembers when, at 7 or 8 years old, he asked his father to buy him a toy submachine gun.
The request wasn't extravagant. His father, Eugene Lang, was on the way to becoming a multimillionaire as the founder of patenting firm Refac Technology Development. But rather than buy Stephen the toy, Eugene suggested they donate what it would cost to charity. It went to a boys' home in Queens.

This is the man who donated enough money in 1985 to allow us to have this school. Eugene Lang goes on to say, "A good education is to learn to be self-supporting so that they can build their own inheritance," "I never believed in luxuries. I still pick up a penny on the street."
To the parents, friends, family, educators and administration who have helped us get in and through this school, I see it as an honor for all of us to be here tonight and for the graduating class to come from a school that is named Eugene Lang. Lang created I have a Dream Foundation in 1981 and Project Pericles in 2001. Pericles recognized “that every citizen, regardless of economic or social status, had both a duty to serve and the potential to lead, Pericles and his fellow Athenians established what became the foundation of modern democracy. The legacy of Pericles is the core precept of America's founding philosophy and has been historically connected to higher education in the United States. Its mission has embraced the preparation of students for active participation in an expanding, pluralistic society in which citizenship, social responsibility, and community are inseparable.”

I was in group therapy a few months ago and this woman said, “If I were you, I don’t know if I’d even go back to school or care about graduating.” But for me, it is not only about graduating it’s about completing another stepping-stone to continue my life.
Life is unpredictable and that goes for all of us. Addressing a class at Lang is so different than any other college. We are all achieving something tonight that is really special and important in our lives. We should be proud of ourselves and grateful for the people that have helped us get here. And maybe even grateful for the things that have held us back. Because sometimes those things that hold us back, only teach us how much we have inside. As Carl Jung once said, “who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.”

We dream ourselves and we awaken ourselves. And sometimes we sleep through our alarm clocks and dream too much. But that is okay. I believe it is finding a balance to truly be happy with whatever it is you want to do.

As we leave here tonight in this cold weather, I hope you feel a warmth that came from this school. This city can be cold but there are little things around every corner that gives hope. And the New School, well it actually owns quite a few corners now, is an institute of change and awareness.


On a personal note, it is the holiday season and there are many people out there who are fighting for their lives. I hope you will consider donating blood, platelets and even bone marrow. While in the hospital, in a drug- induced daze, I swore to myself if I had the opportunity to speak anywhere, I would make sure I added that. Because I am living proof that transfusions save lives. I have had over 80 transfusions.

I am honored that I was able to speak here tonight and was relieved when Leah called me back and said my speech only had to be 5 to 6 minutes long. Thank you all for allowing me this time to speak.

Once again, congratulations to everyone graduating tonight.

Thank you.