Saint Mary’s College of CA Valediction | Class of 2016
Saint Mary’s College of California
Trustees, Brothers, President Donahue, faculty, staff, family, friends, and most importantly, the Saint Mary’s College of California class of 2016 - good morning. I am honored and humbled to address you, with the most beautiful view I could possible have in front of me today - that of the class of 2016.
It is difficult to decide where to begin, especially as we are marking a day of endings. After all, today is our last day as current students. But today also marks a continuation of a journey started at Saint Mary’s. What we have learned here does not end here on this field, in our black gowns and carefully-decorated caps. It is important to remember where that journey began.
Four years ago, many of us entered the campus for the first time after choosing Saint Mary’s for first year orientation - entering to learn; for others of us, this could have been a few semesters ago at transfer orientation. Think back to that moment. Perhaps you remember your orientation leader; perhaps you later became one yourself. You might remember a fellow new student from your group; that person might still be sitting next to you today. I personally remember the Saint Mary’s chapel bells. I was in the middle of a housing information session when everyone paused. The person speaking took note - what I was hearing were the real bells, not the running track we have on every hour. I lost the luxury of living in the illusion that the hourly bells were true bells. Someone was ringing the bells that day for the success of our rugby team.
Fast forward: imagine yourself at the first week of classes. Perhaps it’s community time on Wednesday. All around you, people are busy. Club officers and student activists cloud your vision with fluorescent posters and free t-shirts. You smell the first community time barbecue of the year. It’s loud and busy, and yet, amid the chaos, you hear the church bells. Every hour, on the hour, starting at 8 am and ending 9 pm, with a special song tone at noon, 6 p.m., and 9:30 p.m. You become used to it - on your way to late night to meet your friends for that study snack - or procrastination tool - between classes, as you sprint to make it to the County Connection bus. You might have even learned about it yourself from one of the Christian Brothers. And maybe you don’t notice the bells. On your way to submit a packout request for your residents, the bells ring, and you don’t take the time to notice them because you ran into your resident director on the way. No matter what you’re doing, no matter the case, those church bells ring. In fact, those church bells have become such an integral part of us as students that they become the minute detail of our experience we tune out yet can never forget.
Those bells are not too different from what Saint Mary’s means to us, what Saint Mary’s has become to us on an individual level. We recognize the church bells in various ways, and we are all Gaels in a variety of forms. The church bells ring on the hour as a constant reminder of that, whether or not we notice them; we become a Gael in that way, that way that creeps up on us and becomes a part of us, that is part of our identity. Every time those bells ring, I think of a new memory I’m running off to make, or an old one that I remember.
And we have a lot of those shared memories, as a class. We are not a class that forgets about who we are. We are a class of fighters, intentionally-minded thinkers. We are a class of firsts and lasts. The fall we entered, we celebrated The College’s sesquicentennial year - and are probably the only college students in the nation who can pronounce that word with no problem. We mark the first class under the new core curriculum, which means we all somehow managed to fit in those extra classes and seminar reading reflections in our schedules yet graduate in one piece. And like I said earlier, we are marking some endings, including the fact that we are the year that ended a few certain outdoor parties that were once Saint Mary’s traditions.
All jokes aside, we are also a class that made our own traditions. Regardless of the memory, we learned a lot along the way. We may not have realized it- in the same way that we take the bells for granted on a daily basis- but Saint Mary’s hugely influenced us. We have taken it as a responsibility - how do we act as a Gael? When the bells ring, how have we continued that tone on campus?
Throughout our time here, each one of us has shown different versions of what it means to be a Gael. You decided to make this place your community, but also one that you hoped others would want to join. Perhaps you found your community in the production of a cultural night or through your hands-on work in planning service events through CILSA. Maybe you worked as a tutor for an academic department, or served in weekly masses. You might have even led our choir to international victory, or contributed to our rugby team reaching such high acclaim, or played on our basketball team that inevitably got snubbed this year - but epically beat the Zags nonetheless. And you might have also used your influence to share your story, create a safe space, reveal your economic reality, speak about the lives that matter to you and should matter to the world. All of your work, all of our work, has been in an effort to better Saint Mary’s, to prepare it for the greatness we are and the greatness we know The College deserves. The amazing thing about Saint Mary’s, like the amazing thing about the bells, is that it can mean something different to anyone. You can make it your own. And yet it is still Saint Mary’s. Saint Mary’s is still us.
We leave to serve in a way that keeps our legacy alive, that same legacy that Saint John Baptiste de la Salle used as a foundation for this education. We must remember what Brother Dom told us as first year students: we have a privilege with an undergraduate degree, a privilege that a very small amount of people in this world share. It is now our responsibility to be Gaels yet again, when we leave here today, as the bells keep ringing, and continue to improve the world where we see fit. This can take any form - be it as you continue your education, enter the workforce, join the armed forces, and everything in between.
As we enjoy each other’s company at the plots this afternoon and in the celebrations that follow, the bells will still ring, and so will the new memories that follow in shaping our experiences as Gaels. It is important to take a moment to look around, like we did earlier, so we can later remember what this moment was like. We share our last memory as a class, and that is what the bells will come to represent and as we leave here today. But even beyond that, today’s memories will encompass so much more than ourselves. They will represent our family members who are present with us today, the faculty and staff who gave us the resources and support to thrive, the friends we made along the way, and the loved ones who ground us.
But for now, today is a day of celebration. In the words of Kenyan environmentalist and political justice activist Wangari Maathai: we must celebrate the little victories, no matter how small. While this graduation is a celebration of a huge achievement, it also commemorates many little victories that each of us has achieved leading us to this day. And when we leave, leave to serve, the church bells still ring. But we don’t need to be present on campus to recognize the bells; after all, we are Gaels for life.
Thank you, once again, for this great honor. But most importantly, go Gaels.
