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I am so proud of each and every one of
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you we are here today because every
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single one of you stood tall and said
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yes we
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can yes we can learn yes we can succeed
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you decided you would not be defined by
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where you come from but but by where you
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want to go by what you want to
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achieve by the dreams you hope to
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fulfill
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for We Gather here tonight in times when
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the very foundations of Our Lives the
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old order has been shaken the old ideas
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and institutions have crumbled and a new
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generation is called upon to remake the
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world and let me be clear when I say
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young I'm not just referring to the date
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of your birth
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certificate I'm talking about an
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approach to life a quality of mind and a
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quality of heart
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we need people like you to step up we
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need your daring we need your enthusiasm
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we need your energy we need your
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imagination a willingness to follow your
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passions regardless of whether they lead
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to fortune and
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fame a willingness to question
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conventional wisdom and rethink old
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dogmas a lack of regard for all the
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traditional markers of status and
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prestige and in a commitment instead to
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doing what's meaningful to you what
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helps others what makes a difference in
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this
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world we're engaged in two
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Wars and a struggle against
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terrorism the threats of climate change
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nuclear proliferation and pandemic defy
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National boundaries and easy solutions
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for many of
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you these challenges are also felt in
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more personal
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concerns perhaps you're still looking
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for a
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job you're struggling to figure out what
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career path makes sense now in the face
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of these
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challenges it may be tempting to fall
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back on the formulas for Success that
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have been pedal so frequently in recent
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years it goes something like
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this we too often let the external the
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material things serve as indicators that
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we're doing well even though something
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inside us tells us that we're not doing
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our best that we're avoiding that which
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is hard but also necessary that that
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we're shrinking from rather than rising
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to the challenges of the
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age and the thing is in this new hyper
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competitive age none of us none of us
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can afford to be
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complacent that's true whatever
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profession you choose
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professors might earn the distinction of
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tenure but that doesn't guarantee that
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they'll keep putting in the long hours
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and late nights and have the passion and
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the drive to be great
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Educators the same principle is true in
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your personal life being a parent is not
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just a matter of paying the bills doing
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the bare minimum it's not just bringing
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a child in the world that matters but
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the acts of love and sacrifice it takes
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to raise and educate that child and give
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them
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opportunity I'm standing here as
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president because the education that I
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[Music]
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received I know it's not always easy to
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do well in
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school I know a lot of you have
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challenges in your lives right now I get
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it I know what it's like my father left
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my family when I was 2 years old and I
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was raised by a single mom who had to
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work and who struggled at times to pay
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the bills and wasn't always able to give
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us the things that other kids had there
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were times when I missed having a father
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in my life there were times when I was
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lonely and I felt like I didn't fit in
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so I wasn't always as focused as I
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should have been on school and I did
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some things that I'm not proud of and I
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got in more trouble than I should have
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and my life could have easily taken a
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turn for the
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worst but my
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mother my
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grandparents they pushed me to excel
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but I was I was lucky I got a lot of
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Second Chances and I had the opportunity
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to go to college and law school and
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follow my dreams you can't let the past
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get you down you have to let it motivate
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you everybody here has got a unique
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story like that to
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tell each of you knows what it took for
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you to get
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here but in reaching this Milestone
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there's a common lesson shared by every
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graduate
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in this Hall it's not where you are or
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what you are it's who you are because
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life will throw some things at you truth
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is not a single one of the graduates
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here today has had as easy not a single
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one of you had anything handed to you on
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a silver
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platter you had to work for it you had
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to earn
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it most of all you had to believe in
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yourselves yes you've always been
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underdogs
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nobody's handed you a thing but that
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also means that whatever you accomplish
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in your life you will have earned
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it whatever rewards and joys you
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reap you'll appreciate them that much
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more because they will have come through
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your own Sweat and Tears products of
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your own effort and your own talents
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you've shown more grit and determination
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in your childhoods than a lot of adults
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ever will that's who you are we need
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everyone to broaden their ideas about
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what is
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possible we need parents politicians and
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the media to see how success is possible
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how success is happening every
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day so that's why I came here
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today because if success can happen here
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you have everything you need to get
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started you've got no
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excuses you have no excuses not to
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change the world did you study business
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go start a company
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or why not help a struggling non
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for-profit find better more effective
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ways to serve folks in need you study
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nursing go underst staff clinics and
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hospitals across this country are
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desperate for your Heth you study
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education teach in a high need school
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where the kids really need you give a
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chance to kids who can't who can't get
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everything they need maybe in their
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neighborhood maybe not even in their
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home but we can't afford to give up on
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them prepare them to compete for any job
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anywhere in the
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world you study engineering help us lead
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a Green
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Revolution developing new sources of
00:07:14
clean energy that will power our economy
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and preserve our planet find somebody to
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be successful
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for raise their
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hopes rise to their
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needs that's what's made a difference in
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our lives and it's going to make an even
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greater difference in your
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lives not just for your own
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success because we live in a new world
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now the Hard Road does not end
00:07:44
here your journey has just begun it
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won't protect you against every setback
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or challenge or mistake you'll make some
00:07:51
I
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promise you're going to have to keep
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working hard you're going to have to
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keep pushing
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yourselves and you'll find El sometime
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in situations where folks have had an
00:08:03
easier time they're a little bit ahead
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of you and you're going to have to work
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harder than there and you may be
00:08:08
frustrated by
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that you may have setbacks and you may
00:08:12
have failures but you're not done you're
00:08:14
not even getting
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started and if you ever forget that just
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look to history Colonel Sanders didn't
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open up his first Kentucky Fried Chicken
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till he was in the
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60s Winston Churchill was dismissed as
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little more than it has been who enjoyed
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Scotch a little bit too much before he
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took over as prime minister and saw
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Great Britain through its finest hour
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when you read a great
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story or you learn about an important
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moment in
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history it helps you imagine what it
00:08:46
would be like to walk in somebody else's
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shoes to know their
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struggles each of them at one point in
00:08:54
their life didn't have any title or much
00:08:57
status to speak of but they had passion
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a commitment to following that passion
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wherever it would lead and to working
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hard every step along the
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way but if you do push yourselves if you
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build on what you've already
00:09:12
accomplished here then I couldn't be
00:09:15
more confident about your
00:09:17
futures I'm hopeful and I'm excited
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about what all of you can achieve and I
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know that armed with the skills and
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experience and love that you've gained
00:09:26
you're ready to make your mark on the
00:09:28
world so thank you thanks for inspiring
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me I know starting your careers in
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troubled times is a challenge but it is
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also a
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privilege because it's moments like
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these that Force us to try harder and
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dig deeper and to discover gifts we
00:09:45
never knew we had to find the greatness
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that lies within each of us so don't
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ever shy away from that
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endeavor I can promise that you will be
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the better for that continued effort
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congratulations God bless you
