Burden of Tomorrow

When you first came to Stevens, undoubtedly to some extent, you looked up to the senior class with wonder and awe.
You had just been told by everyone in the administration that “you will be the future of engineering” or “this institution is a leader in ‘blank’, and you will be a part of it,” and nothing reinforced those ideas than the seniors. They had struggled through their respective curriculums and succeeded in all that you had hoped to accomplish.
In a way, they were the future.
Now, you are in the shoes that you looked up to initially. New and incoming freshmen of this year looked up to you as the seniors.
And such as the sun sets with the passing of each day, so too do you, the seniors of this class leave the future to the next class.
Take a minute to reflect on your experience. Without hard work and effort, the dream of graduation, the aspirations you set for yourself when you came to this Institute of Technology would never have come to fruition. It was difficult, it was stressful, but in the end, it was more than likely worth it.
The place you stand now is where everyone still enrolled wishes to stand: before the open possibilities of the world.
I believe in Convocation it was said that “you are the innovators who will change this world,” and I can’t help but wonder if that is true. Certainly, you have doubts, standing on the podium accepting your degree: “where to next?” But it is that exact ideology which makes a Stevens Student – ahem – Stevens Alumni/Alumnae, so magnificent. No matter what comes our way, we always look ahead to the next thing, we always need to improve.
Take heart, Class of 2014, you will do fine. I have every ounce of faith that Stevens has more than prepared you for the fields you seek.
Those struggles you’ve underwent, those classes you just barely passed, those late, coffee-filled nights, and all of the countless hours poured into your efforts, are not at all in vain.
Good luck out there Class of 2014. Celebrate, today is your day, yesterday is past, and tomorrow begins a new chapter in the books of your lives.
Per aspera ad astra, through adversity to the stars.