Gathering
It’s a Saturday morning, the day of Commencement, and I stand before the crowd gathered to honor E4Texas graduates. Offered by the Texas Center for Disability Studies, whose home is in the Steve Hicks School of Social Work, where I am a professor, E4Texas provides coaching in life skills and job training and placement assistance for high school graduates with intellectual or developmental disabilities. I have the honor of giving the keynote address for this auspicious occasion.
Speaking
Well, here you are, graduates of E4Texas. You’ve done the hard work. You’re ready for jobs in childcare, personal care, and as paraprofessionals in education. You are going to be supporting others and making their lives better. I know of no higher calling nor of more meaningful work. So I want to start by saying congratulations. Congratulations to you, your families, and other supporters who are here. This is a big day. So, graduates, please stand if you are able, turn around, and let your people see you and celebrate you.
Commencement marks a beginning. All of you are beginning a new phase of your lives as you enter the workforce and make your contributions to others’ lives. While that’s a great privilege, it also comes with great responsibility.
As graduates of the E4Texas program, you have embraced this responsibility. You have worked hard to develop your understanding of yourselves and of meaningful work. I suspect there have been some challenging moments along the way—there are always these moments in school and life—and you have shown resilience, perseverance, and strength. You made it, and you are ready to meet the challenges that come with more independence and adulthood.
I want to offer a little advice for you to think about as you celebrate your accomplishments, as you prepare for your working future, and especially as you face challenges ahead.
But before I offer that advice, you should know where it comes from.
It comes from my own experiences with facing challenges, and specifically, the challenge of being diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson’s disease five years ago. As someone who now faces a future with a disability—as a person you might be helping someday—I think a lot about facing challenges and what it takes to meet them and live well.
Here’s my first piece of advice. Remember to stop and smell the roses. By that I mean, take time to enjoy your life and your accomplishments. Don’t dwell on the past. Don’t live too much in the future. Focus on today. The future does not exist. Today is what we have. Live each day to the fullest. Work on being happy. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Stop and smell the roses.
My second piece of advice is to remember that while challenges will come, you can meet those challenges and grow from them. Life’s hardships are the roadmap to wisdom. We grow, mature, and improve most when we struggle and strain. It might not always feel that way, but it’s true. Remind yourselves of this as often as you can. Remind yourselves that you are smart, courageous, resilient, and strong. You are ready to meet the challenges that come your way. You are ready to thrive.
Here’s my last piece of advice. Remember your people. You have people in your life who love you, cheer for you, and who will be there for you when you need them most. Some of those people are here today, others are here in spirit, but you are never alone and you need not face your challenges by yourselves. Lean on your people, just as you want them to lean on you. We all need our people. Remember this.
I then tell the story of Cooper, a young boy who stuttered, and his father. I’ve written about them previously. (See “Making It.“).
Sharing
The room is filled with smiling, satisfied faces and with postures that seem to reflect more confidence than they did when this class began its work 18 months ago. My colleagues and their teams have, once again, helped young people with disabilities mature, grow, and learn skills and dispositions that will set them up for success in life. I know the students have helped their teachers grow, too.
There is also a palpable sense of solidarity derived from mutual experiences of joy and pain, familial love, shared aspirations, and hard-fought dreams. These graduates exemplify courage and resolve, perseverance and persistence. Most importantly, they bear witness to the immutable power of a community whose members believe in each other and root for each other.
As I end my speech, with my left thumb twitching, my elbow stiff and bent, and my hand slightly drawn, Dorothy Day’s words come to mind. “We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.”[1]
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[1] Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness (New York: Harper and Row, 1952), 286.
Photo by Baim Hanif on Unsplash
Allan Cole is Deputy to the President for Societal Challenges and Opportunities at The University of Texas at Austin, where he also serves as the Bert Kruger Smith Centennial Professor in Social Work in The Steve Hicks School of Social Work and, by courtesy, as a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Dell Medical School. Diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2016, at the age of 48, he is the author or editor of many books on a range of topics related to chronic illness, bereavement, anxiety, and spirituality. His latest books are Discerning the Way: Lessons from Parkinson’s Disease (Cascade), In the Care of Plenty: Poems (Resource Publications), and Counseling Persons with Parkinson’s Disease (Oxford University Press). Follow him on Twitter @PDWise.