Message to this year’s graduates: Help us rise up

I’ve given my share of commencement addresses, and in the 14 years that I was a Texas lawmaker, every May I wrote a letter to graduates. These speeches and letters are always about the future: hope and promise, community and civic duty, overcoming challenges and obstacles.

This year, hope, community and surmounting obstacles matter more than ever. Still, this message to a graduating class that will have no traditional graduation feels strange, like much of our current reality. The coronavirus’ appearance in our lives is one of the biggest disruptions our society has faced in a long time.

We’ve lost much in this unique time. Some have borne a much heavier burden than others, but we all share grief both big and small, personal and universal.

The tragic loss of life makes our hearts heaviest. The temporary loss of human connection and the loss of livelihoods are weighing on us all. This rite of passage — your graduation — is also one of those losses, and it’s OK to grieve that.

In the midst of these losses, we have the opportunity and responsibility to seek out the gifts of learning, growth and meaning. President George W. Bush recently said of this time, “we rise or fall together — and we are determined to rise.” Our choices now will define who we are and who we can become.

One gift we can take from this moment is the gift of learning. Life always gives us opportunities to learn, and right now, the lessons we are being offered are profound. I know you have already learned invaluable lessons about change, flexibility and agility. You’ve seen your colleges and universities deftly reinvent themselves. You have been deft — in rearranging your lives, schedules and learning styles.

We’re also learning about the fabric of our communities: the health workers pulling endless shifts, the businesses pivoting to manufacture essential equipment, the farmers and grocery store workers who have been keeping the world turning for us all along.

And we’re learning about our shared destiny: A public health and economic crisis is a reminder that our fates are tied up with one another. In a culture in which we often celebrate individual achievements, what we do together matters, too, and each of our well-being is in all of our best interests. Connected to this, we’re learning anew about how important it is to have reliable and credible experts and institutions — too often taken for granted — to prepare and guide us through challenging times.

A second gift we can take from this pandemic is finding new meaning in our communities, where many of us have become meal deliverers, donation-drive organizers, errand runners and mask sewers. Throughout your education, we have implored you to go places and connect with people. Now many doors of exploration are temporarily closed, but wherever you are, there are opportunities to explore, as new gaps emerge and long-standing gaps and inequalities are exacerbated. The experiences in this “new normal” may not be the future you’d imagined, but we need you more than ever, as innovators and creative thinkers, in the private sector, government, public office and the nonprofit world.

Finally, we have the gift of being called to rise to a historic challenge. Every generation is shaped by how they respond to the events that happen around and to them. You’ve grown up in a world of great uncertainty and great promise: a post-9/11 America, a society in which innovation and creativity are valued but in which jobs and skills are rapidly changing; an economy that has experienced dramatic ups and downs. Surely, this pandemic is a generation-defining moment. While there is much we cannot control, there are choices in your reach. What will you take out of this moment? A sense of fear or of community? A world that feels smaller or one that feels more tightly knit?

Amid all of this loss, what gifts can we — together — take from all of this? How will you help us rise? That’s my commencement charge for you. It’s a gift and a privilege to be able to choose to rise to this challenge. I look forward to seeing what you do with this gift.

Brett Coomer / Staff photographer Many college graduates won’t be walking the stage this year — like these Baylor medical school graduates, who will participate in a virtual ceremony — and they’ll enter a bruising economy. But great challenges also bring great opportunities.