Thank you very much to all the families, friends, relatives, professors and school administrators in the crowd. I'm glad you all took the time to support your own favorite graduate and that you're giving me this opportunity to speak with you briefly today.

I'd like to start you off with a quick story today, and depending on how you feel, it may be a bit of a downer. Or it might inspire you. Or, you might feel totally indifferent to it. Any one of those reactions make sense, and you'll find out why by the end.

As the story goes, one monarch wanted to find one sentence - one piece of advice - that could change the mood of whoever read it, and he wanted it inscribed on a golden ring so he could always have it - to bring his head out of the clouds when he was too high on himself, and to inspire him when he was feeling down. The king wasn't so sure such a sentence existed, but he was the king, so he didn't mind giving a crazy order now and then.

So one of his servants went off to the goldsmith and told him what the king had requested - and he gave the goldsmith the quote. Some time later, he brought the king the ring. The king, who was now laughing to himself because of his servant's naive belief that such a sentence could ever be written. When he read the ring, he became sad. The sentence did exist.

The ring read simply: "This moment shall pass."

I told you it could be a bit of a downer, especially on a day as happy as this one. But it's the best message I could think to share with my fellow students as we reflect on the highs and lows of our four-year education. I know if I ever get down on myself and doubt my abilities to find my dream job, I can think: this moment shall pass too. And I know that the perfect message to stay humble in the wake of a great success is to simply remember: this moment shall pass. as well It's a reminder to us that our college education might end today, but our education never ends: we're going to keep learning lessons as long as we're willing to learn them. We'll probably learn them even when we don't want to.

Today, we're celebrating our college education's conclusion, but we also recognize that this moment, too, will pass and soon we'll be out in the real world, trying to make the lessons we've learned in college apply to our jobs and our lives. Maybe this is the best news I have for you, because if the challenges ended today, then so would all the learning, and all the fun. So would all the friendships and bonds we formed when facing those challenges together.

So I'm sorry if my little message brought your head out of the clouds, but hopefully it will always keep your head above the water as well. Take today to celebrate and congratulations to the class of 2010 for doing all that their college required of them - and in many cases, much more. Let's hope that a message like "This moment shall pass" will be good news because we hope for a brighter future thanks to the support of our friends, family, and professors - but also thanks to ourselves. Congratulations.