December 19, 2004
Purdue President Martin C. Jischke made these comments during commencement ceremonies on the West Lafayette campus.
President Jischke: Life is a journey filled with adventure, discovery
Congratulations to our graduates!
You have worked long years to reach this moment. You have survived late nights of study, early morning lectures, quizzes, final exams, more papers and projects than you ever dreamed possible.
You have survived Indiana winters, computer crashes and even roommates.
You have read untold, huge numbers of textbooks, scholarly articles and announcements taped on the sidewalks.
And now it has all come down to this.
At this moment, after all these years, there is only one more obstacle standing between you, your diploma and the rest of your life – my speech.
Gen. Harry Shelton, former chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that every time he gave a talk he reminded himself of a book report a little boy once wrote about Julius Caesar.
The report went like this: "Julius Caesar lived a long time ago. Julius Caesar was a distinguished leader. Julius Caesar made long speeches. They killed him."
So, today, I will be brief!
We will quickly move on to the diplomas that you so richly deserve and the rest of your life that awaits you.
This is a great day for you graduates. You have worked very hard.
I know some of you suspect that our faculty lies awake all night always thinking of even more amazing ways to make this university impossibly difficult.
And, of course, you are right! They do!
Our faculty never sleeps.
A Purdue education is not designed to be easy. It is designed to be challenging, to stretch your abilities as far as they can go.
At Purdue you have learned you can go very far, indeed.
This is a great milestone day that you will remember for the rest of your life. Take time to enjoy it and to appreciate the significance of what you have accomplished.
This is a proud moment not only for our graduates, but for the families and friends of our graduates who have joined us for this celebration. No success is ever complete unless we share it with those we love.
The opportunity for all of us to be together today and to share in this happiness is perhaps the greatest gift possible during this holiday season.
In addition to our graduates, I extend my congratulations today to all the family and friends who fill this hall. Like these student, you have also worked hard. You have invested a great deal of yourselves into the lives of these graduates.
As parents, my wife, Patty, and I understand exactly how you feel today.
This is a moment that you have dreamed about for many long years – it is a proud day that you will always cherish.
It is traditional in commencement addresses to talk about the journey our graduates are beginning. Today, I’m going to start by talking about another journey.
It was launched 200 years ago this year in 1804, when President Thomas Jefferson commissioned Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the new Louisiana Purchase territory. Their goal was to map the rivers, to make friends with the native Americans and most of all to discover a Northwest Passage providing easy access to the Pacific Ocean.
Thomas Jefferson gave written instructions for the expedition and its 40-some-person crew, which came to be called the Corps of Discovery. He said: "… your mission is to explore the Missouri river, and such principal streams of it, … and … whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado or any other river, may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across this continent for the purposes of commerce …"
Commerce!
Like Purdue, Lewis, Clark and Jefferson were interested in economic development!
Jefferson's charge to Lewis and Clark sounded like an impossible mission to many people in 1804. There were those who scoffed at the idea and were certain it would lead to ultimate failure and even death.
But Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery succeeded. They battled rivers and mountains, summer heat and winter cold.
Two hundred years ago today at their winter camp in what would become North Dakota the temperature exceeded 40 degrees below zero.
They battled mosquitoes, flies, disease and, at times, even one another.
They became lost and found their way back; they become discouraged and found renewed hope; they doubted themselves but they bravely forged on. They received vital help from native Americans and in particular, a native American woman named Sacagawea, who walked alongside the men carrying a baby on her back.
In less than 2 1/2 years, Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery traveled more than 8,000 miles.
Historians have noted that Lewis and Clark did succeed in their objective of mapping a route to the Pacific. But perhaps even more important was the treasure trove of scientific information they observed every day and brought back with them in their written record.
Historians have also noted that every day, Lewis, Clark and each person who was part of that Corps of Discovery, saw and experienced "wonderful things."
Wonderful things!
What conflicted emotions they must have experienced as they set their eyes for the first time on the overpowering grandeur and the majesty of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains, and in the same breath realized that they must cross those peaks to reach their destination.
Today this graduating class forms a 21st century Corps of Discovery of your own. You are taking off on an expedition even longer, even more adventurous, arduous and exciting than the one undertaken by Lewis and Clark 200 years ago.
You are beginning a journey to your future. There is no turning back now.
I cannot tell you where your journey will lead. But I can promise, along the way you will see and experience wonderful things.
As you embark on this journey, there is a great deal you can learn from Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery. Like Lewis and Clark, you will succeed only by cooperating with others and working as a team. You will be strengthened by diversity. You will need to care for and serve not only one another but the people you will meet along the way.
The diploma you are receiving today is more than a reward for hard work and a symbol of your success. Your diploma also comes with a responsibility to share your time, talents and knowledge with others who are in need.
Like Lewis and Clark, you will need help from other people to reach your goals. You cannot do it alone. And sometimes that help will come from the people you least expect.
Before embarking on their expedition, as they planned and prepared for everything that lay ahead, Lewis and Clark never imagined how essential one native American woman would be to their ultimate success.
Like Lewis and Clark, as you embark on your journey you expect to encounter some little bumps in the road along the way. But some of these are going to turn out actually to be the Rocky Mountains!
Keep on hiking. You will find your way through.
Like Lewis and Clark, your expedition will be learning adventure.
Today, your education is just beginning, and that is why this ceremony is called a commencement.
Your journey is not one of conquest. It is one of discovery.
Your success is dependent on being lifelong learners.
Like Lewis and Clark, you will at times find yourself in confusing, mysterious and even frightening places. But don't turn back.
History is replete with the regrets of people who gave up, not knowing their goal was just beyond the next hill.
Like Lewis and Clark, you won't find an easy passage to your destination. The road will be long, hard and rocky.
But the expedition you embark on today is not really about a destination. It is about the journey itself.
Author Robert Hastings says that we all see ourselves on a long journey in life as if we are on a train, heading for a destination. Hastings says that destination can be seen as the station where we will disembark from the train. The station is where we will have reached our goal.
Bands will play, flags will wave, our dreams will come true when we finally reach that station.
What is your station today? Is it success and wealth? Prestige? Family?
Perhaps at this moment it is just getting through the commencement ceremony, packing the car and getting home.
The problem, Hastings says, is that there is no station. There is no one place to arrive at once and for all.
The true joy of life is not in reaching a final station, he says. The true joy of life is in the trip.
Success for members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was far more than reaching the Pacific Ocean and finding a safe way home. Their ultimate success was in everything they discovered, every day along the way.
I wish you great joy and success in this journey of your lifetime on which you are embarking today.
On behalf of the Board of Trustees, the administration and our faculty, congratulations to the Class of 2004!
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