What comes from the mind is
knowledge;
What comes from the heart is
wisdom.
(Garth Brooks)
The following are “excerpts” from Mohawk College's
Interim President's
convocation address to more than 4,000 students who graduated this spring.
convocation address to more than 4,000 students who graduated this spring.
Work Hard, Be
Bold...and Enjoy the Ride!
As you get ready to begin your
career, I'm about ready to call it a career after 50 years on the job. Here's a half century worth of lessons
learned...condensed to four pieces of advice:
If you're offered a job working in a
mailroom...take it.
If someone who cares about your success
offers tough advice...listen to it.
If they offer a helping hand...grab it.
And never stop learning.
My career started in the
mailroom at International Harvester on Hillyard Street in Hamilton's industrial
North End. Today that building is home
to McKeil Marine ~ a great supporter of our students, our School of Business
and Mohawk College.
I spent my days sorting mail
and resetting all the clocks in the building.
Every Monday, I'd call Ottawa for the official time. And then I'd make my rounds. Most executives said “Good Morning”. But not the comptroller. He'd ask me, “What are you doing about your
life? Do you plan to make a career out
of working in the mailroom and setting clocks?”
To be honest, that sounded like a pretty good life! I was making the princely sum of $64 a week. I was driving a '54 Ford...and living at home
in Hamilton's east end. I was working in the mailroom because my father gave me
a choice on the day I dropped out of Glendale Secondary School in Grade 13. He
instructed me, “Go back to school. Get a
job in five days...or get out of this house!”
The comptroller at
International Harvester was persistent. He saw something that I didn't. He offered me a job in the accounting
department. But to work there, I had to
earn my accounting certification. To obtain this, I needed to go back to school.
For the next six years I worked all day...took accounting classes two nights a
week...together with my wife, raised a son and daughter. Going back to school
changed my life and built a better life for my family.
Continuing my education opened
doors at International Harvester. For more than 30 years, I worked at the City of Burlington
as a treasurer, general manager and for
a short time as city manager. I finally
called it a career in 2009. The plan was
to ease into retirement with some consulting work.
Five years ago, Mohawk College
called requesting I take a temporary assignment to serve as interim president
until our new president took the helm.
These past five years have been the best of my career because of
you. I've had the privilege to work with
and learn from some amazing students. I can't wait to see what you'll
accomplish and contribute at work and in our community.
Here's why you should be
excited and why I'm optimistic about your future. Old guys like me are about to
retire in record numbers...and we're ready to hand over the keys. We haven't solved all the world's problems.
There are many needs to be met...many
opportunities to be seized...good money to be
made.
It is true that life is a
journey. The road is never
straight. It will twist and turn with
some unexpected detours. There will be
miles of hard road. Some legs of your
journey will be a sprint. Most will be a
marathon. So, work hard. Take initiative. Don't burn any bridges. Be bold and courageous. Never compromise your values and always stay
true to your roots.
If you're lucky, you'll
convince someone special to join you on the ride and be a good companion. Surround yourself with great people...and
some wonderful things will happen to you.
Never stop learning. Always be
the very best version of yourself. And
above all else, Enjoy the Ride! Make it
count and enjoy every minute.
Words of Moderate
Wisdom for my Youngest as she Graduates
Paul Benedetti,
teacher of Journalism at Western University
submitted the
following Father's humourous overview in the Spec's June 21st issue.
As she graduates this week, I
approach this event with mixed feelings.
They are a mix of relief and relief.
Relief that we have successfully ushered our youngest child through a social,
emotional and personal maelstrom. And
that was just the gym class. Relief,
too, that the unbridled use of my credit card during the past 27 weeks as she
prepared for The Prom has now come to an end. (Actually, Visa ended it when our
balance ~ in relative terms ~ exceeded the Ontario Provincial debt.) Who cares if her dress cost as much as a
pretty good used car? And if you count
the shoes, jewellery, hair, nails and professional makeup, I could actually be
driving a nice late model import right now!
In any case, we're pleased and
proud that Ella has been successful. But
we're careful about the proud part.
Every kid, including each of our three, takes a different path through
school, with a lot of hits and misses along the way. They were the ones in
school and they experienced both the successes
and the setbacks as they went along.
I like to think that we kept them on course as best we could.
“Congratulations,
graduates! High School is over and as
you head into the world, remember this:
Packing extra underwear is always a good idea. The world is your oyster,
an unpleasant thought if I ever heard one.
Whether you choose college or university, you still have three or four
years left of sponging off your parents.
Use them well.
“Remember, too, that almost
everything you learned in High School ~ like the cosine or whether Tybalt killed Mercutio or the other way around ~ is
useless, unless your life plan is to be on Jeopardy. Remember, too, dear
graduates, that all the petty rivalries between the Nerds and the Jocks,
between the Brainers and the Tools, all that disappears, until you get your
first real job in an office and then it's like 'hashtag deja vu'. In college or university, you will encounter
many new ideas and facts. You'll learn
that: wet towels on the floor really
start to smell after a while; that Karl Marx and Groucho Marx had a lot in
common but mixing them up on a term paper is not a good idea (believe me, I
know); that one great course or one
great professor can change your life and that the rest can be pretty
boring; that mixing anything ~ or anyone
~ with a large volume of tequila is always a bad idea; and that on any test of
any kind, the right answer is usually C .”
Sage Advice...from
Maya Angelou
“My mission in life
is not merely to survive, but to thrive;
and to do so with
some passion, some compassion, some humour and some style.”
Merle
Baird-Kerr...scripted June 21, 2014
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