For Immediate Release
Office of the Vice President
May 2, 2004
Remarks by the Vice President at the Florida State University Commencement Ceremony
Leon County Civic Center
Tallahassee, Florida
9:22 A.M. EDT
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Well, thank you very much,
Chairman Thrasher. And thank all of you for that warm welcome --
President Wetherelo, Chairman Carolyn Roberts, deans of the university,
distinguished guests, veterans in the Seminole Color Guard, members of
the faculty, parents and families, members of the Class of 2004.
I'm delighted to be with you this morning. I've been looking
forward to visiting Tallahassee and sharing this day with all of you
graduates. I'm honored to be here, and I bring congratulations to each
and every one of you from our President, George W. Bush. (Applause.)
I also want to congratulate the men and women whose dedication year
after year have made this institution a place of excellence and
achievement, the fine faculty members of Florida State University. And
I join the graduates in thanking the people who have stood by you all
the way, and who have helped make this day possible, the parents of the
Class of 2004. (Applause.)
In addition to all of you receiving your bachelor's degrees today,
I'm told we have 170 receiving their master's degrees, and 30 more who
have earned their PhDs. Their presence here reminds me that I was once
a PhD candidate myself -- met all the requirements except for the
dissertation. I'm still trying to think of the topic. (Laughter.)
On this, your final day at Florida State, I'm sure you feel a mix
of excitement starting new things, maybe a bit of sadness at leaving
behind this great school at this time in your life. You'll remember
the routine of this place, the pressures of student life, the feeling
of accomplishment at the end of a tough semester. Some of you will
remember -- or maybe try to forget -- an involuntary dip in Westcott
Fountain. (Laughter.) You'll all miss a horse named Renegade,
charging across the field with Chief Osceola in the saddle, and on the
sidelines, the winningest coach in college football history, Bobby
Bowden. (Applause.)
You're graduating today from a great university and taking your
place among generations of alumni who have gone on to lives of great
accomplishment here in Florida and well beyond. It speaks very well of
FSU that so many of you here today are the first in your family to
attend college. For other families here, FSU is a tradition going back
several generations. And for all who pass through here, Florida State
has inspired loyalty and gratitude for the opportunities you found
here.
Another notable tradition here is that of service to the community
and the country. Many graduates are current or former members of the
military. And at this very hour, 25 FSU students are on active duty in
the Middle East. (Applause.) As we celebrate commencement, we are
thinking of them all, and we proud of their brave service in the armed
forces of the United States.
After these years of hard effort, something tells me you're not all
that excited to hear another lecture before you leave, so I'll keep it
short. (Laughter and applause.)
I know it's the custom for graduation speakers to draw from their
experiences and share some of the lessons they've learned along the
way, so as you begin a new chapter in your life, let me offer a few
thoughts of my own. There's one very practical lesson that comes
immediately to mind. I learned it in the year 2000, when President
Bush called to ask if I would help him find a running mate for Vice
President. The lesson is: if you're ever asked to head up an
important search committee, say yes. (Laughter.)
That decision four years ago set me on a path I had not expected to
take. I was certain that my time in public office had passed. And
looking back there seems to be a pattern in my life, the unexpected
turns, the opportunities that come suddenly and change one's plans
overnight.
On the day of my own graduation from the University of Wyoming, I
had no ambition for public office. If you'd asked me at the time what
I planned on doing, I could have described in some detail my next 10
years. First, there would have been graduate school, then wrapping up
that unfinished PhD, and down the road, with some luck, a faculty
position at a university. Of course, it all worked out very
differently.
Within a few years of graduation, my wife, Lynne, and I were living
in Washington, D.C., beginning a journey in government and public life
that neither of us had ever imagined.
Many of you will leave Tallahassee today with definite plans of
your own. And setting a plan for life can be a good thing. It keeps
you focused on the future, gives you a standard against which you can
measure progress. Yet, I'll wager that 10 years from now, many of you
will find yourselves following a very different course all because of
an opportunity that came out of the blue.
Be on watch for those certain moments and certain people that come
along and point you in a new direction. I think, for example, of the
first time I met my friend and colleague Secretary Don Rumsfeld. It
was back in the 1960s. He was a congressman, and I was interviewing
for a fellowship in Washington, D.C. Congressman Rumsfeld agreed to
interview me, but things didn't go all that smoothly -- just 15 minutes
later, I found myself back out in the hallway. Don's impression of me
was that I was kind of a detached, impractical, academic type. And I
thought he was a brash, cocky, young politician. And we were both
right. (Laughter.)
We didn't click that day, but a few months later, it was Don
Rumsfeld who noticed my work and offered me a position in the executive
branch. And later on, when Gerald Ford became President, and made
Rumsfeld his chief of staff, it was once again Don who gave me a
position of great responsibility in the White House.
Standing here today, I can promise that there will be people like
this in your own life who keep an eye on you, who reward your efforts,
and help bring out your strengths. Sometimes others know better than
we do just what our gifts are and how we can best use them. For all
the plans we make in life, sometimes life has other plans for us.
Those of you who have been around a while can also recall a few
times when life took an unexpected turn not always in a positive
direction. As I mentioned a moment ago, I received my undergraduate
degree from the University of Wyoming. My undergraduate experience,
though, began at a place called Yale. But I didn't finish. I dropped
out after a few semesters. Well, actually dropped out isn't quite
accurate. (Laughter.) Asked to leave would be more like it.
(Laughter.) Twice. (Laughter.) The second time around they said,
don't come back.
You, too, may face some disappointing turns of your own, times when
you fall short, knowing you could have been better. And when that
happens, don't let your doubts get the best of you. I have met some
very successful people in my day, men and women of talent and character
who have risen to the top of their fields. And it's the rare one who
hasn't had a taste of failure or a false start along the way. Setbacks
in life can stop you dead in your tracks, or they can inspire you
forward. Either way, you will look back on them as turning points.
They are crucial days in your life when you see the starkest kind of
choice and know that the decision belongs to you alone.
One of the things I love most about our country is that we have
such opportunity. There are places in the world where failure is
final, and only one misstep will decide your fate forever. But America
is still the country of the second chance. Most of us end up needing
one. And when we've gone on to accomplish something we can be that
much more grateful.
Gratitude in general is a good habit. It is usually a correct
appraisal of our situation. Most of us are able to succeed and rise in
the world because someone helped out along the way, whether it was a
memorable teacher, or a boss who handed us a great opportunity, or the
person who took a chance and gave us the first big break in our
career. A grateful heart is an honest understanding of all that we
have been given, and all that is expected of us in return.
There's always the temptation to forget this, to carry ourselves
with an air entitlement, as if good things come to us by right. They
rarely do. And life has a way of working out better when we don't take
things for granted, when we have a long memory for what others have
given us, and when we look for the blessings -- great and small -- that
come with every day we're alive on this Earth.
For all of you, this day will forever stand out as a marker of
gifts well used, aspiration fulfilled, and hard work rewarded. It's
been my privilege to share it with you and your families. And once
again, my congratulations to all of you. Good luck and Godspeed to the
Florida State University Class of 2004. (Applause.)
END 9:32 A.M. EDT
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