Toni Morrison
(Quoted on Joy's mortar board.)
Sitting out here on the morning of my beautiful daughter's
graduation, before the world wakes up and all the noise and ceremony begins,
I've been thinking over the last 21 years, and really I just want to say thank
you. Thank you to everyone who helped make today possible, everyone who loved
and supported our little family over the years, everyone who taught us
something, allowed us space to be, helped us grow and thrive.
And Joy, my favorite firstborn, what can I possibly say to
you? You blow me away... Of course I'm excited that you earned your important
pieces of paper and that you already have an awesome job to go to after this,
but mostly I'm awed by the amazing human you have become--a woman of conviction
and courage and deep deep compassion for others. I know the world will be a
saner, kinder, freer (and vastly more colorful!) place because you are in it.
Your dad would have been so very proud.
If I'm allowed to offer one piece of advice on this special
day, it's simply this: always trust yourself, that inner voice of yours that's
clear and straight and true. Listen to as much counsel from others as you want
or feel you can stand, and then tune it all out and follow your own path.
Because you already are, already have everything you need.
