Address to SLU Commencement - May 15, 2005
Anna Burke '05

Hindsight is 20/20. How poetic. How short and sweet and to the point. Such a quaint little saying that says absolutely nothing to an immature child heading off to college, but one that says everything to a grizzled and gnarled twenty something who’s headed out of college and headed straight into the real world.

As a child I used to hear my mother use this adage and recognized that she said it when she felt reminiscent about something to my dad “Ya-know Dave, we really should have held on to that yellow MGB.” Or when she was regretful about an action that one of us kids had done, “Mom! We didn’t know that the tent would get wrecked if we rolled around the yard doing summersaults inside of it!” “I guess hindsight’s 20/20, isn’t it.” Clearly we had no clue what she meant. “20/20, you mean like the show with Barbara Walters and Hugh Downs?”

Obviously I just wasn’t experienced enough to totally comprehend the truth and seriousness which that little phrase held. Lately, I have been worrying about what I would say here today. Ok, not lately… more like for the past year I have been worrying about this moment. Let me tell you how hard it is to have no limits on topic for a 5 minutes speech which all of your classmates, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, professors, staff, and people you don’t even know will hear. Granted, some are definitely not listening anyways, (I see Game-Boys, I-pods, cell phones and a lot of flasks)… but some of you are listening, and wondering what profound piece of advice I have to give out this morning, while simultaneously hoping that I get to the point fairly soon.

Well I’m getting to that point right now. What is it that I have to say to all of you that you don’t already know for yourselves? The answer is: nothing. I am in no position to hand out advice to my peers. You should definitely listen to the advice and stories of the Honorary Degree Recipients today because they have been around longer than any of us sitting here in our stiflingly hot black caps and gowns. But how would I have any more wisdom or knowledge than any one of you? I don’t. And I’m not going to pretend that I do. Instead I will pose a question to you.

I ask you this Class of 2005, would you, in hindsight, have done anything different in your past four years here?

I hope that the answer is no, and that you did everything that you wanted to do the instant you wanted to do it. I hope that you sit here completely content with yourself and your actions and behaviors since 2001 and can honestly say “I have absolutely no regrets. I made choices over the past four years and I stick by them to this day without hesitation.”

Now, if you seriously just said that to yourself I am very impressed. More than impressed, jealous almost. Because although I tried to do as much as possible while I was here, I know that there are still more things that I never did, places I never went, and people in our class whom I just met during senior week.

St. Lawrence University is a place of many opportunities. St. Lawrence students are people who realize the value of these opportunities and take advantage of these ample opportunities. I’m sure all of you have taken advantage of at least one of these fantastic opportunities of SLU and I also realized that I just said the word opportunity 4 times in two sentences. I want you to know that I looked up the word opportunity in the Microsoft Word Thesaurus so that I could avoid doing just that and there was the synonym “chance.” Rather than going back and editing my paper (in true St. Lawrence style) I left them in because this goes along perfectly with what I am trying to say. Opportunities are one in a million/ a dime a dozen and you have got to take a chance to take advantage of them when they pop up.

There’s nothing wrong with being in the right place at the right time and taking unplanned adventures. I found that out last year. One day I was working as a senior week crew member and planning on heading home at the end of the week to look for a summer job in my hometown. The next day I was eating lunch at Dana and was asked to be a field assistant to a geology student and professor studying in North Dakota for the summer. I know of other students who have traveled further than that… China, Peru, Spain, France, Australia, New Zealand, you name it. And for those who didn’t want to leave Canton there were so many clubs to join and intramural sports to play (I will miss you broomball team!) In hindsight I know now that I could have done more while I was here. But I do not regret the things that I did partake in.

I just hope that you stop and think for a minute about the fact that we’ve only experienced about one quarter of our life, which means that there are SO many more opportunities to grab a hold of when we leave SLU and I want you to take those chances, risk doing something out of the ordinary, and possibly have fun while doing it! We are not on a timeline anymore. For the past 14 years we have been… every summer we play and every fall we go back to school. Well of course a lot of you will be going back to get your Master’s degrees next fall and then perhaps your Doctorate. But eventually we are going to be done with school. And at that point I hope you do not feel at the end of your road, but rather at the beginning of a new road which you can take anywhere.

I know that right now, I do not have a clue of what I want to do with the quote “rest of my life.” But I also know that I don’t have to know. It is absurd to think you can plan that far in advance. I didn’t know when I got here that I would end up as a geology and math major… in fact I came here thinking I would take physics! I also came to play field hockey and ended up as a rugby player. Things change, and new people and things are brought before you. Sure, you should have a long term goal or two…and maybe even a job or seven to pay off your student loans, but don’t be so preoccupied with the future that you forget to have fun where you are at. I think that the worst feeling you could have is regret. So take advantage of every opportunity presented to you in the future and reduce your need to say,

“Hindsight is 20/20.”