Key Note Speaker Honor--Speech I delivered

Post graduation I was honored to be ask to give a speech as Key Note Speaker. This are the words I shared...

Just over a year ago I was setting where you are today.  A new future before me with many unknowns and hopeful dreams of the great adventure upon which I was ready to embark, sorta.

Today you have a choice.  You can begin or you can wait.  Education is important to any future and today shows you have that path accomplished.  Experience is the road that lies before you now.  It is a fork you face.

Down one tine lies time, time to search and find the quote/unquote "Perfect Job".  Down the other lies an offer for a low paying starting position.  It is not your dream job; however, it is your experience, adding to your earned education to bring you closer to the reason you started your education in the first place, the job you desire until retirement.

I started as part-time clerical and have advanced through practiced experience and willingness to continue learning, to become a substance abuse counselor, full time with advancement possibilities that are unlimited depending upon the future choices I will make.  This was a path presented, a road taken, a dream discovered. 

Never give up on your dreams or the idea of a new dream because they may lead you to a new reality that was unrecognized by who you are meant to be in your life.  

Today you have all proven, by the time sacrificed by yourselves, as well as your families, and your friends who set here with you today in gracious support of your success, that you are capable of tremendous dreams.  Celebrate, Enjoy, Explore, and when you have those who tell you that you cannot, smile.  Doubters give us wings because their hot air helps us to fly.  

Congratulations and God Bless.