May 22, 2000Vogt came to Colorado College from Littleton where he attended Heritage High School. A recipient of the Boettcher Scholarship and subsequently the Colorado College award in literature, Andy has been very active on campus, including being involved in the Honor Council, Sigma Chi fraternity, and the debate team.
I would also like to welcome family, friends, and the Class of 2000 to this commencement ceremony. In the spirit of this momentous day, which is both an end and a beginning, a comment from Andre Gide is appropriate:
"Life never presents us with anything which may not be looked upon as a fresh starting point, no less than a termination."
In the past year, this combination of starting point and termination -- beginning and ending -- has had a powerful presence in my life. To some, the story may seem bizarre, while I prefer to see it as funny, and I hope you will, too.
I was in three car accidents and had my license suspended: I learned to drive more carefully. My major plans for the coming year were rejected: I learned to embrace the idea of "taking a year off." Our small Lhasa Apso dog Pepper was attacked, died in surgery, was resuscitated, and now walks around with one eye. You might also remember the two failed Mars missions this year. My dad worked on both. I am proud to say that his company has since learned that in metric conversions one pound is roughly equivalent to .45 kilograms. One of my sisters dropped a keg on her toe, breaking her big piggie. She's learned she can't carry a keg herself, while my other sister was thrown off a horse and broke both her arms. She has learned to appreciate a patient, caring, and understanding hand in the kitchen, the classroom, and of course, the bathroom.
Now all of this may be hard to believe, but these incidents compounded, have been my year. Thinking back over these experiences, I've come to realize that I certainly cannot take anything for granted. We have all learned, though to various extremes, that we cannot take anything for granted. Although this may start with toes, eyes, and appendages, it means that we do not take for granted those around us, the ideas which are presented to us, and all that comes before us. In fact, this common perspective unites our diverse and otherwise disconnected class.
From our first block at CC, we've engaged subjects and ideas quickly and intensely and then bid them farewell a mere three and a half weeks later. We've experience the freedom and intensity of F.O.O.T. trips and other block breaks which create lasting friendships while they last four and a half days. The block plan has immersed us in the flux of living, in its many beginnings and endings. We have also pursued the avenue of not taking for granted the world throughout our liberal education. We question the ideas of those who have preceded us, we question the unknown through scientific experimentation, and we refuse to leave unquestioned our assumptions and the assumption of others. We have gained a healthy skepticism for simple solutions for the information we receive and for those who lead us. We have not treated the world as merely given. Instead, we have constantly and seriously explored its many aspects from science to politics to art. At CC, we have not taken for granted our friendships, our beliefs, or our experiences.
But the primary question on this day, especially for the relatives and those who have paid for us to go here, then becomes, "What will this mean for our futures?" I believe that the question is not which careers we will pursue, for experts predict we will have at least four of them in our lifetime, and we are all heading in wildly divergent directions. The question is instead how our shared attitude will affect our lives and contributions to the world. In all of our pursuits, I hope that we will undermine blind and outdated assumptions. Think creatively, and share the precious gift that has been the Colorado College experience. I hope that we will maintain this attitude in our professions, in our obligations as citizens, and in our responsibilities to the environment and to our global society. Yet, this hope must also be a demand, for we have had the privilege of asking such questions and of developing our critical thinking skills. We cannot take anything for granted and we need to share this outlook with the world at large.
Not all of us will deal with two broken arms, plummeting satellites, or even a small, cycloptic dog. But, all of us, because we care, because we do not treat the world as unchanging and given, will have to face difficult loses in our lifetimes. Although some of these transitions are humorous, they can also be painfully bittersweet as we all begin to realize on this day. In my past year, in the greatest tragedy of my life, I lost my mom to ovarian cancer. Faced by this devastating loss and yet wishing to continue caring and living fully, I've had to find meaning in this tragedy. I have become more sensitive to the constantly unfolding beginnings and endings of our lives, more acutely aware that we cannot take anything for granted. If there is meaning to be found in every loss and gain, hello and goodbye, it is that although we may part ways, bidding farewell to people and places, we keep alive the spirit of our friends and institutions - their causes, their values, and their passions. I firmly believe that this is enough.
Life never presents us with anything which may not be looked upon as a fresh starting point, no less than a termination. Do not take the gift of CC for granted, keep its spirit alive in the larger contexts of your actions in the future, and never stop caring. Thank you, and congratulations to the class of 2000.
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