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have to admit that I'm a little surprised to be speaking here today.
Somehow I don't feel mature enough to be giving a college commencement
address. In my head, I'm mostly an ex-ski bum who happened to marry
a talented and beautiful woman. We don't have any children of our
own, unless you count our five-year-old Labrador, leaving us free
to jet-set around the country together on adventures like today's.
Whatever the reason, I would like express how exciting it is for
me to be here to congratulate these graduates. You chose your college
education wisely. I am truly honored be here. As an alumnus, I am
always looking for an opportunity to give back to this College in
return for all that it gave me. Gifts, for example, like when Brad
Heinrichs talked me into playing goalie for the lacrosse team. I
still have bruises. Or when on a service trip to Boynton Beach we
decided it would be smart to paint each other with tar instead of
the driveway. If you've never had the pleasure of a chemical burn,
I wouldn't recommend it. There was also the time when Dr. Bedford
made me realize that I was officially a "nerd" as we laughed together
while watching molecules collide during a computer simulation. It
was pretty cool.
Of course, I realize that being a doctor is a popular profession.
In fact, it is an amazing profession - one which is constantly exposing
me to profound life-changing experiences. I won't lie to you, it
doesn't hurt that most of my patients think I'm Doogie Howser, the
smartest kid-doctor in history. However, let me be the first to
tell you that medical school and residency are not nearly as exciting
as Gray's Anatomy. In my current position, the general feeling is,
"Fantastic. I have 10 years of higher education and I can't believe
how much there is still left to learn!" Many of the graduates today
can relate to this as you say to yourself, "All right! I'm a college
graduate. So now what?"
This "now what" is a tough question, but standing in your shoes
just a few years ago I'd like to share some of my experience since
graduating from college.
The Top Ten Things I've Learned Since Graduating from College:
Number 10: In the immortal words of Ben Parker,
"With great power comes great responsibility."
OK, so I'm a huge Spider-Man fan, and I always wanted to say this
in front of a large audience. I'll say this, there is not doubt
in my mind that Ben Parker read Swedenborg.
Number 9: Your days as an athlete are numbered.
I used to think of myself as a big-shot soccer player, but now the
16- year-old kids I coach can run circles around me. Every couple
of weeks I'll lace up my shoes to play in a coed league, and I'm
spent for the rest of the weekend. Enjoy your youth.
Number 8: Despite how hard I try, I can't keep
up with technology.
I just bought a new cell phone and I can't figure out how to use
all its features. You may have calluses on your thumbs from text
messenging, but soon you will complain to each other about how your
AppleTV only has a 40GB hard drive.
Number 7: Relationships can be more challenging
and more fulfilling than I ever believed possible. I know you tend
to hear this a lot, but I can't help but say that I highly recommend
getting married.
Number 6: Those who wander are not all lost.
This nugget is meant specifically for the graduates out there who
don't have a plan for tomorrow. Maybe you will stay in Bryn Athyn.
Maybe you will move back to your hometown. Maybe you will travel.
Society tries to convince you that this makes you a bum. However,
what you truly are is someone who lives in the moment, and there
is real virtue in that.
What I would wish for all of you is that you'd do what I did and
pack up your stuff and move to Colorado to work in the mountains.
Believe me, working at the base of a ski resort with two-hour lunch
breaks and a four-day work week was not half bad. I promise you,
when you are looking for a job the conversation will go like this,
"You have a college degree? When can you start?" The ski town credo
is this: So-what if I don't have savings; if I die tomorrow, I'll
die happy.
I might also add: Don't wait for retirement. Go ahead and spend
your life savings on a plane ticket. Have as much adventure as you
can. What you forget to bring you can always find when you get there.
And if you don't ask, then the answer is already no.
Number 5: We accomplish nothing on our own.
When patients are in the hospital, it is easy for them to believe
that there are only one or two people who impact their care. What
they don't always realize are the five other doctors and 15 other
nurses who are directly and emotionally involved with their care.
Not to mention the x-ray technicians and therapists and social workers
and pharmacists and nutritionists and unit clerks and endless amount
of people all working for the same patient.
I won't deny you that graduating from college is a huge personal
accomplishment. You should all be very proud. The all-nighters studying
for finals. That oh-so-fun senior research paper. However, the people
who support and inspire you are the real heroes today. You are getting
older so you are starting to appreciate the sacrifices your parents
in particular have made for the last 20-odd years.
The thank-you list is long. It starts with your parents, but also
includes your extended family, who made sure to have you over for
a real dinner one night a week. Your adopted family, who treated
you like their child even though you'd only just met. Of course,
you can't forget the dedicated and caring faculty who always treated
you like equals. And although you may never have realized it, you
had professors who would rejoice when you would show command of
a difficult topic, and stay up late worrying when they knew you
were facing challenges in your personal life. Don't forget your
high school mentors and that teacher whom you still keep in touch
with. Last but not least, your classmates who went out of their
way to help you perfect that paper and study for that exam. This
includes your closest friends who would drag you away from that
paper and from studying for that exam.
Number 4: We make a difference in this world by
creating an environment for change.
Simply put, when we create this environment, it allows the Lord
in to bring real change. Current and future teachers in this audience
know this well. You can't make a student learn. Pastors can also
relate, because you can't make a parishioner believe. And I'll tell
you a secret. In medicine it is no different, because we can't actually
cure disease. Whether it is with surgery or medications, we can
only create an environment for the body to heal itself. All of these
examples are described in the Writings as creating a state receptive
to the influx of God's love.
Number 3: We aren't as different from one another
as we like to believe.
There is a lot of pressure in the world today to create divisions.
Us vs. Them mentality. Democrats vs. Republicans. Rich vs. Poor.
Men vs. Women. Christians vs. non-believers. Americans vs. foreigners.
Like many of you, I had fantastic opportunities during and since
college to travel across the country and around the globe. Opportunities
to meet people of varied cultures and walks of life. In Soweto,
South Africa, I saw a community working tirelessly to support their
children's education. In rural Honduras, I saw a version of an ambulance
which was in fact a sick patient in a hammock being carried to help.
In the Amazon region of Brazil, I met farmers who were passing their
trade on to their children. On a Navajo reservation, I saw grandmothers
yelling at their grandchildren for watching too much MTV.
Mainstream media will claim otherwise, but I promise you that wherever
you go you will find people who are working to serve the neighbor
and to make this world a better place.
Number 2: It's all about good and truth…and also
all about use.
When I was in college I felt like this was an ongoing joke. Knowing
this simple phrase you could answer 90% of the questions on a religion
test. And, as my grandfather Rev. David Simons
loved to teach, "All of us were created to perform uses, and when
we do we experience a little bit of heaven." True joy comes from
doing.
Besides the fact that I love my job, this concept profoundly influenced
the specialty in medicine that I chose. As Dean Lindsay said earlier,
I am training in Pediatric Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
It's a mouthful, and it's not very well known even in the medical
world. In essence, the focus of this specialty is to restore and
preserve function. It is all about use! In my case this applies
to kids who may have been born with a disability or may have suffered
some sort of injury in a car crash.
From cerebral palsy to spinal cord injury, I work closely with physical,
occupational, and speech therapists to ensure that our patients
have the appropriate equipment, skills and strategies to overcome
very real physical barriers in their lives. I love this approach
to treatment, because it is yet another example of making a difference
in this world by creating an environment for change.
Number 1: Your path is your choice.
As I was saying, many of my patients' lives changed in the blink
of an eye. They may not have chosen to be in an accident, but in
life change itself is unavoidable. Think of how your life is going
to change after today. What is fundamentally important is how you
will respond to this change.
In this regard, I find that I primarily take care of two types of
patients: those who are victims and those who are survivors. It's
not hard to imagine which group makes the better recovery. Your
challenge today, and everyday, is how will you respond to change.
Survivors make great patients to work with. They live in the moment.
They recognize the multitude of people helping them on their journey.
They thrive in a rehab environment. They view themselves as people
first and are not defined by their differences. They always find
their way back to a life of use.
Graduates, once again I want to express my deepest congratulations.
I am truly honored to be here today. Medical school may have given
me the technical skills and authority to treat patients, but the
four years I spent at Bryn Athyn College shaped the core of who
I am as a physician.
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