Thank you for that nice welcome, and it's great to be here surrounded by...well, just surrounded. We have family, friends, relatives, faculty, staff - they're all here, and they're all celebrating the same exact thing today: my graduation. Just kidding.

My name is _____ and as a part of the Class of 20__ - just a small part, mind you - I've been asked to get up here and say a few words about this occasion and what it all means. So in trying to find the right words, I started asking myself about the graduation ceremony. What is it? Why do we have it? What's the psychology around it?

Then it hit me: having a ceremony to commemorate a change is common across virtually every culture on the Earth, so there must be something to this idea of commemoration. Something deep. And the more I thought about it - okay, admittedly I wasn't pulling an all-nighter here - but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how important a graduation ceremony is, or a ceremony for any commitment in life.

The ceremony is like a nightcap, a way of acknowledging the commitment we've made or are preparing to make. When two people get married, they commemorate their commitment to each other with - what else? A ceremony. If you want to mentally prepare yourself for a change, you have a ceremony with your family and friends: so they can all see you make a promise to yourself and to them. And that promise affects everything we do from here on out.

What does that promise mean here today? Although the graduation ceremony is a celebration of the commitment we've made to get here, it's also a reminder of the commitment that life will now demand from us. We're all college graduates now; by taking our education seriously, we're telling each other that we take our lives seriously. And by having all our friends here to give us encouragement and congratulations, we're acknowledging that we're taking another challenging step into legitimate adulthood. Oh, and by the way, graduates: you're adults now, just in case you needed a reminder.

This means graduation serves as a sort of ceremony for two things: the commitment it took to get here, and the lifelong commitment we now make to be full, contributing members of society. We're college-educated now; there's really no excuses for us. Many of us, despite our challenges, have seen opportunities billions across the world could never dream of. We have to protect that opportunity and cherish what it represents for us: a chance to achieve our dreams.

We also have to respect the responsibility our place in life has created for us: we have the responsibility to help others less fortunate. So while you may feel funny wearing a cap and gown today, realize that there's something significant about the ceremony: it's indicative of the way we should view ourselves. We've got a diploma. We're certified. It's official. Now we've got to honor the commitment we make to the world today. Thank you.