Address to the University of Queensland graduating class – December 12, 2013
Chancellor, Acting Vice-Chancellor, members of Senate, members of staff, distinguished guests, graduates of 2013, parents, ladies and gentlemen.
I have a question: why are you here?
If I were to ask every single graduate why you are here tonight, I’d receive a range of responses.
You’d tell me you’re here because you wanted to celebrate, to commemorate or maybe just draw a line under a few very important years of your life. You’d tell me you are here because you were graduating and, like turning 18, getting a drivers licence or taking your first overseas trip, it’s an event worthy of some note.
You might say you’re here because you wanted to join with that bunch of strangers you met during first semester first year who ended up becoming your friends. Or perhaps you’re here because you studied hard, slaving away over textbooks and dreading group assignments, and that you earned the right.
Or maybe you’d simply tell me you arrived here tonight because you caught the number 66 bus from town.
They seem like different answers. Varied. But they are not.
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