Good afternoon fellow graduates, family, relatives, faculty, professors - thank you all for coming to join the Class of 20__ at our graduation and commencement ceremony. I promise to keep this relatively brief, but just in case I forget, you should all probably take a bathroom break right about now.

I have an odd quote to share with you today, and it's from a relatively odd man: Mark Twain. Mark Twain said that he never let his schooling interfere with his education. For a long time, I didn't quite understand how that worked - after all, if you're going to school....that's your education, right? No need to think about it further. But the more and more I thought about it, the more it made sense, and I'll tell you why in a minute.

Here at ______ University, we've just spent four years or more working hard to attain our degrees. We've spent hours studying for classes, hours writing papers, hours listening to lectures, and hopefully, not too many hours at the bars. It's been a long and wild ride, but here we are, four years later, with something to show for it all. An education. After today, no one can ever say that we are among the undereducated of the world, and that accomplishment is not about bragging rights but about responsibility.

Without that responsibility, we wouldn't be charged with going out and making the world a better place. Now, I know everyone wants to make the world a better place at 22, and many of you at 55 are sitting there rolling your eyes. So bear with me for a second when I talk about what it really means to try and change the world into a better place.

What does it mean to change the world, to make it a better place? To do one's own part, all you have to do is make yourself as good as you can be and share what you've gained with others. That's it. A little kindness touches a lot of hearts, and a life spent pursuing your dreams is spent in the common purpose of humanity: to achieve happiness. But there's one thing about the future we need to remember.

While our schooling is now over, our education never is. And that's what I think Mark Twain was getting at - an education is not only about diplomas, but about the successes and failures we have in life, the progress we make, the way we overcome obstacles. Finding an education is a lifelong dream, and even though some of us feel like we're lifelong students, the truth is that an education is simply something you really can't avoid.

So what message do I offer my fellow classmates, soon to be competitors in the very real and the very tough job market? Remember that you can't do much good for the world unless you do good for yourself, and that you never let the end of your schooling become the end of your education. Thank you.