The following is excerpted from the valedictory address delivered at the Bregado Flax Educational Centre graduation ceremony on July 5 on Virgin Gorda.
The theme for this year’s graduation states, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” Although I was a science major, I know a thing or two about how investments work. I know that investing can be risky, and that one can make a really good investment or a terrible one.
The story of the birth of Google, the most successful search engine in Internet history, is an example of a good investment that started with a simple idea. It began at Stanford University in the mid-1990s. Two graduate students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, desired to build the world’s best search engine. Initially, neither of them had a clear idea of how the company would make money. They were more concerned with trying to help people find more relevant information online in less time. However, Google grew and grew and in 2004 they dominated over 84 percent of all searches on the World Wide Web. In other words, the Google founders took Google from being just another Internet start-up to a company with a market value of tens of billions of dollars. It all started with a simple investment.
Now, not all investments may turn out so profitably. However, a sound education brings rewards. Not only does a sound education unlock doors to economic opportunities, but it also improves quality of life, and equips us to achieve financial and social mobility. According to Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
Graduates, the majority of us are planning to further our education at a tertiary institution. But some of us may be questioning the value of a college education, choosing instead to go to work immediately. Whatever you decide to do, guard against becoming shipwrecked.
In life, powerful currents of compromise can catch the soul and carry it to shipwreck. Some of these currents include temptation to use illegal drugs or alcohol, an addiction to Facebook and computer games, excessive television viewing, and a strong desire to get rich quickly.
Drifting is usually a slow and hardly noticeable process. Oftentimes, we know it has occurred only after we have given in to temptation. To counteract this process, graduates, when you find yourself with leisure time, find something constructive to do: Learn to play a musical instrument, read books, become an apprentice, volunteer your services by joining a youth organisation.
Someone once said, “Life is not made by the dreams that you dream, but by the choices that you make.” Graduates, my hope is that we all make intelligent choices.
And one intelligent choice that we can make is to continue to invest in our education. Make excellent choices, then revel in the results.
In closing, I leave you with my favourite poem, “You,” by an unknown author.
You
You are the person
Who has to decide
Whether you’ll do it
Or toss it aside.
You are the person
Who makes up your mind
Whether you’ll lead
Or linger behind;
Whether you’ll try
For the good that’s afar,
Or be contented
To stay where you are.
Take it or leave it:
There’s something to do.
Just think it over:
It’s all up to you!