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C o M M e n C e M e n T
The Valedictory BETSEGAW TADELE ’13 …We shall remember this day. donning our gowns, straightening our caps, circling our necks with various representations of the excellence of our four-year journey, marching proudly across a campus we have come to know and to love so well—Oh, we shall remember this day! We came in as freshmen—marching together to be welcomed to the ’House, marching together to orientation sessions, marching together to divisional meetings, and advisement sessions, and finally to that infamous Parents Parting Ceremony, where we said goodbye to our childhood and girded up our loins to engage the challenges of becoming a man. Today, as graduating seniors, we came into this place—again marching together, brother to brother — but this time to leave to go our separate ways, to blaze new trails, to ford new streams, to chisel new stones into masterpieces that will leave the places where they stand better than we found them.
We shall remember this day. As we leave to go out into a world that is sure to test our mettle, scrutinize our strong academic preparation, and challenge our resolve to lead lives, not for our own aggrandizement, but for service to others. for we are world-changers because we do not hesitate to recognize that, though the world has come a long way, we still dare to imagine a better world free of poverty, free of corruption, free of social ills, free of debilating disease, and free of man’s inhumanity to man. We dare to imagine a world where we are literally reaching for the stars. We dare to imagine a world where we can all live harmoniously with one another. And, yes, we dare to imagine a world where brotherhood and sisterhood characterize all human relationships.
We will remember this day. Because our parents and guardians, our teachers and our mentors, our role models and our trailblazers made it possible for us to achieve and encouraged us to excel in arenas never engaged before. Today, we must say THANK YOU!
We will remember this day. Because this Commencement, this glorious day of celebration and exultation gave us the rare opportunity to be among the few graduates anywhere who will remember who was their Commencement speaker 50 years from now!
We can never forget that on this day, we, the men of the 2013 graduating class of Morehouse College, were privileged and honored to hear words of indescribable inspiration from one who demonstrates every day that there is no IMPOSSIBLe and there is no UNBeLIeVeABLe and there is no UNACHIeVABLe if you have the audacity to HOPe—words lived out every day by President Barack Hussein Obama! It is this daring attitude, this willingness to challenge the naysayers and the dilatants that will take us, members of the dynamic Morehouse College graduating class of 2013, to places never dreamed before—all because we came to an institution called Morehouse College, all because we came to a place that enabled us to grow, develop, achieve, believe, and excel. And for this, our hearts will forever sing: Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit Make us steadfast, honest, true, To old Morehouse and her ideals, And in all things that we do. Thank you. n CommenCement 2013
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CommemoratIve Issue
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