Graduation

My mom, brother and I went up to Provo for the graduation ceremony a few weeks ago. It was quite the interesting experience. Partly due to the fact that I haven't sat in a classroom at BYU in almost a year. My traditional education ended last summer so it seemed strange to be on campus again. But it was also great closure, a great wrap up to 4 years of my life. I feel like it really did end, like my experience came to a proper end.

I posted pictures on facebook, where more people look than here. But I'm putting a few on here as well, as I make a few comments about the experience. Because it is BYU, there was of course a different atmosphere especially with the speakers being Pres. Uchtdorf and Elder Nelson. Pres. Uchtdorf received an honorary degree. When he spoke he laughed and said he felt to blessed and lucky to receive such an honor without going through the hours and hours of work, testing, etc and without having to face a panel of professors whose sole purpose it was to prove he didn’t know something. Unfortunately I did not have a pen to take notes with (which is very unlike me), but I do want to mention a few things I remember. First, all speakers, including Pres. Samuelson, the student speaker, etc. , talked about how at BYU we have gained both a secular and spiritual knowledge. This is something that as students at BYU we realize, but I guess having not taken classes in a year, it was something that reminded me. Elder Nelson shared a story that particularly stressed this point.

Elder Nelson told us a story about when he was in South America. He said they were a big group of doctors out in a mountainous village when one of the other doctors started bleeding from the stomach. He said here we were, a huge group of doctors, who had spent our life studying this, yet there was nothing any of us could do, because we were over a hundred miles from a hospital with the equipment we needed. It seemed as though he would die. The man was LDS and asked for a blessing. Elder Nelson gave the blessing and said when he blessed him he felt to bless him to live. Right after the blessing the man stopped bleeding, and of course, did live. Elder Nelson went on to say that knowledge is good and wonderful, but it can only go so far. Sometimes knowledge alone will not get us through certain experiences.

Also, most alluded to the fact that these are trying economic times. I remember thinking, gee, thanks for the reminder, but I suppose its important to mention as we will all probably get discouraged as we hunt for jobs and what not. I don’t remember who, but someone also said that it’s not about what we majored in or what we learned, but what we become in this life. What that knowledge, what that career does to help us become something. I really enjoyed that, and felt it to be of particular importance since I’m still trying to decide where to go from here.