Hello fellow graduates, and thank you for that kind introduction. For those of you who don't know me, I'm _____, and I majored in ____. I also want to thank all of the friends and family who could be hear to support their respective graduates, as well as the faculty and staff of _____ University for being here with us today.

We're all going to be receiving diplomas today. While I was thinking about what it means to receive a diploma, I tried to put myself in the shoes of the average student - which really wasn't hard for me, since I know what it's like pulling an all-nighter and eating pizza for breakfast, too. And I thought about what it would mean to receive that diploma. My first thought was simple: I paid all this money just for this little thing?!

But, of course, there's more to the diploma than just the piece of paper. And it's not totally about being a graduate of ______ University, as proud as we all are to be those. Instead, there's a lot to the diploma we don't consider that I want to discuss with you now.

To get to the stage today, we've all had to put in a lot of work. It's not a matter of fill-in-the-blanks and you receive a diploma. There are many among us who didn't make it this far. While we might not have the dropout ratio of the U.S. Navy Seals training program, there is a required level of dedication to one's education that needed to take place before we could step up here and receive our diploma.

That commitment to our own education is a powerful thing: it suggests a commitment to ourselves, and a healthy respect for ourselves. Not only that, it shows that we believe in ourselves. None of us in this room can honestly admit that they always feel like they'd never amount to anything, because otherwise we wouldn't have pursued our dreams so ardently.

Once we have that diploma in hand, what will it mean for us? Some of us might hang it on the wall of our offices; others might store in in a bin in the basement. We'll certainly list ourselves as college graduates on our resumes - good luck to all of us on the job market, by the way. But what will it mean to have a Bachelor's degree? For me, I know it means that I'm willing to put time and effort into bettering myself, because by bettering myself I improve conditions for others, and by improving conditions for others, I improve the world.

That's where our journey has to start: right with the person you see in the mirror. The person you have to live with every day. Without your belief in yourself, you'll never know how far you can get. Have you ever encouraged a friend to go after their dreams, and were frustrated with them when they had so many self-doubts? Well, we can't let ourselves have those same self-doubts either. That's what the diploma represents: the fruition of our belief in ourselves.

And so, Class of 20__, it's time to take that diploma and put it to good use. While we celebrate all we've accomplished today, I hope our hard work thus far is only an indication of the help we can provide to the world. Thank you.