We are in the midst or at least inside this pandemic and graduations at both the college and high school level are being canceled.  Back in 2017 Coker, where I had worked full time as a professor for 16 years, gave me the privilege of making the Graduation Speech to the Class of 2017 -- a year after I had retired.  That invitation was the greatest highlight of my professional career.  (There is also a major incident story to go along with that speech but for the purposes of this blog, I am going to share the speech.)  The goals of this talk were to welcome the graduating seniors to the brave new world beyond the college bubble and to show them evidence that they were beginning to write their own stories by highlighting the stories of some Coker students whom I had known who doing interesting, constructive things to create their own lives and their own communities.  After my daughter Inga helped me focus my thinking, the hardest part was having to take out so many stories so I could stay in the time limit.  Based on what the graduating class is facing in today's world, I thought I would share this talk for the Class of 2020:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ndte6dN0hA0fVp_z7LfP1kPegZYd4DAc/view?usp=sharing