As the end of the semes­ter approaches, Ferris State University’s 2012 grad­u­at­ing class is prepar­ing to take a step for­ward into a new begin­ning. Graduation is not only a right of pas­sage for col­lege stu­dents, but also a time to reflect on our jour­ney into adulthood.

The sup­port­ing peo­ple and steps we have cho­sen that have helped us jour­ney from ori­en­ta­tion to com­mence­ment have become an inte­gral part of the devel­op­ment of our matu­rity these past few years.

Successfully earn­ing a col­lege edu­ca­tion means much more than hav­ing the abil­ity to mem­o­rize his­tor­i­cal facts or earn high tests scores; it’s hav­ing the abil­ity to uti­lize the infor­ma­tion we’ve learned about the world in order to gain a bet­ter under­stand­ing of ourselves.

The under­stand­ing of our­selves is what helps us estab­lish our future goals. The des­ti­na­tion of our ideals is deter­mined by the poten­tial we see in ourselves.

It’s that poten­tial that allows us to eval­u­ate our self per­cep­tion, dis­cover new ways to chan­nel our cre­ativ­ity and deter­mine the impact we want to make on our society.

Some FSU grad­u­ates will begin new careers, while oth­ers will con­tinue into grad­u­ate school. No mat­ter where your goals take you, a col­lege edu­ca­tion should allow you to travel the path in confidence.

Though a col­lege degree sym­bol­izes the aca­d­e­mic com­ple­tion of an institution’s edu­ca­tional require­ments, our learn­ing must con­tinue beyond the class­room. Education is a life­long expe­di­tion and is not lim­ited to the walls of a uni­ver­sity. It’s not only dic­tated by the books we choose to read, but also the peo­ple we encounter every day and the expe­ri­ences that influ­ence our way of thinking.

Therefore, com­mence­ment should not be a cel­e­bra­tion of the end of our learn­ing, but rather the begin­ning of a life more aware of the poten­tial we pos­sess to achieve our dreams.

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