have been a student ambassador for the past three and a half years. For each tour and

Transcription

1 Cody Warren May 21, 2016 Graduation Speech Franklin College Home Throughout my time here at Franklin, I have learned the importance of an introduction. I have been a student ambassador for the past three and a half years. For each tour and presentation I open the same exact way. I have greeted hundreds of prospective students and families with a single elevator speech that has defined my college career thus far. Here today, with our Franklin College diplomas in hand, I would like to introduce myself to you in the same way. Hello! My name is Cody Warren and I am a senior here at Franklin College where I am studying psychology and minoring in both theatre and leadership. I began my research on graduation speeches as soon as I got the phone call from President Minar that I was selected as Senior Commencement Speaker. I noticed a theme they were all about graduation. Very interesting. I also noticed that they all tended to include a meaningful quote from an important person in history. I figured I probably shouldn t break tradition, so I too needed to find a perfect quote for my speech. There has always been a quote that remains in my mind from the one and only William Shakespeare: I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it. If you know me, then you know my love for England and anything British. I m a huge fan! I mean, I have a paper mask of the Queen s face hanging in my room. Yes, that s a real thing; we ve faceswapped on Snapchat. You re welcome to the ones who received that photo. I have always enjoyed Shakespeare. So, any quote from him is meaningful to me. This quote is from his comedy As You Like It, which happened to be the first production here at Franklin. I played Orlando, or as Robin Roberts would say Tallahassee. But overall, this quote means a lot to me because I literally do like this place and I did willingly waste my time in it, although I do not believe my time here was wasted. Shakespeare s words exemplify

2 the fact that Franklin College is a place that I found to be my home, and a place where I could develop myself into the man I am today. Coming into Franklin College, I had high hopes for my experience. I knew that I wanted to get involved and that involvement would make the college transition easier for me, while also challenging me in every aspect. I set high standards for myself, but I can say that four year ago, I never would have dreamed that I would have been crowned Homecoming King, selected as Greek Man of the Year, Top Ten Senior, Fraternity President, a Fraternity member, presented at psychology conferences, assisted with award-winning research, and had a helping hand at creating the future of Franklin College. But most importantly, I never imagined myself standing on this stage, addressing and representing my fellow soon-to-be Franklin College alumni. I cannot necessarily say that I have proven that Franklin College has changed me for good, but I can say that there is a statistically significant difference since my first time on campus to today. The p-value is definitely less than.05. That s a psychology joke to all those non-science majors My first experience with Franklin College was with my brother-in-law, Adam Hammond. He was a senior here while I was a senior at South Putnam High School, so naturally during my college search he put a little bug in my ear about Franklin. To shut him up, my mom and I came for an unofficial visit of the campus. Now, I was a Student Ambassador and a Fall Counselor, so I know how to sell the campus; Adam, you do not. My first experience was terrible. We arrived to campus on a dark and rainy day. As many of you probably know, one drop of rain in Franklin means that you need to scuba dive to get across campus. Let us just say, I was not pleased with having wet socks. I remember looking at my mom and saying I am never coming here. Luckily, I came back for an official visit with my dad on a bright and sunny day. It was on this

3 day that I fell in love with Franklin. As we were walking down Dame Mall in the sunshine, I had a sense of comfort and I felt at home. Fast-forward to my high school graduation, I was already packed and ready to move on to campus 2 months before move in day, one could say I was a little excited. My dad always tells the story of my move in day freshman year. He says that he will never forget when he left my room that day. He says my expression changed completely from happy and excited to fearful and scared. Scared about the future. Fearful about the unknown. It was at this point that I realized I would be alone on campus a big, scary campus. Now, I know it s not as big as I thought. And it was at this point that I realized I would never want to have the feeling again. I figured I was going to be here for four years, so why not do as much as I could. As cliché as it may sound, Franklin College has really become a home for me. Being a psychology major, I needed to operationalize what a home was and what makes a home. I needed a concrete definition. The best definition I found was from Webster Dictionary, which said that a home is the place in which one s domestic affections are centered. Now that I had a definition, I needed to know what makes a home a home? After all my years of research experience, naturally I turned to Google and googled just that: what makes a home a home and Good House Keeping broke it down for me. I was going to do this big PowerPoint presentation with dramatic music and interpretive dance for this list, but that was shot down very quickly Nevertheless: 1. The people and other creatures you share it with a. It s the people that make Franklin home. The community. From the faculty to the staff to the students and to the administration. If I knew more about biology, I would make some sort of natural selection joke here, but luckily for everyone I m

4 not even going to attempt. All I can say is: survival of the fittest. I guess all of us here are the fittest. 2. All the noise a. The Sounds of Franklin (sounds like an upcoming new album). The noises of Elsey freshmen bonding in the basement, noises from the choir and bands performing in Custer, noises of the train chugging alone during a class lecture, the sound of mowing at 4:30 in the morning, the 11:00am sirens on Fridays, noises from Faught Stadium of students, alumni, and fans standing up and cheering. 3. The smells of good food cooking a. it s getting better. Thank you, Chef Rosie! 4. The dings, scratches, and flaws a. The sketchy Old Main elevator. Barnes. Hoover-Cline. 5. The endless to-do list a. Thank you, professors. You all have mastered this aspect of making Franklin a home. As soon as one thing is done, five other things pop up. Thanks for that. 6. Comfy corners a. These could be where you felt most comfortable on campus, but I see the comfy corners as being all those organizations we got involved in during the four years here. We were all able to find our niche on campus through these organizations and while doing that we were able to build ourselves as students and individuals. College is not necessarily about the diploma we just received, but rather all those experiences that build up to the diploma. All those comfy corners we found. 7. The collections you ve built

5 a. We all built great collections of knowledge while we were here at Franklin. Through all those tedious and seemingly unimportant liberal arts courses, we were able to expand our basic knowledge and develop critical thinking skills. 8. And the family heirlooms a. I see the family heirlooms here at Franklin College as being the traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation. Focus day, the bell ceremony, march down campus freshman year, the march down campus at graduation, saga sitting, Greek Week and other competitions, late night, homecoming, privy burn, GGP, the list could go on and on. But please stop painting Ben! Or at least make a better attempt. 9. Above all, it s about the memories you make a. Each of us has our own memories that will be with us for life. The people to your left, right, in front and behind you are all walking out of this building with a Franklin College diploma, hopefully, but each of us have had difference experiences and different memories. I will just leave that there, but thank you to all of you involved in mine. Thank you for making Franklin my home for the past four years. Thank you fellow students for being more than just classmates and also for being my family, friends, and a community. Thank you faculty and staff for challenging the fellow graduates and myself. It is time that I leave my home of Franklin and that means it is time that I update my elevator speech. I began this speech to you all just as I had begun all my tours and admissions presentations, but I think it is time to update my short little elevator introduction. Hello. My

6 name is Cody Warren and I am a Franklin College alumnus. Where I studied Psychology with minors in both theatre and leadership. Thank you all again for making Franklin home.