Thank you very much. Well Good morning! Good morning!
Ah! That sounds like Columbia, South Carolina filled with some graduates who are getting ready to enter into the real world. This is fantastic. I've been a fan of USC for a very long time, now I did not go here, as we've just learned, but I am so excited about USC that I have decided to designate the South Carolina Political Collections here as a repository for my papers from my public service. I am very proud to be now a part of the University of South Carolina. As we went through the negotiations for those papers, there was really no negotiation by the way; I did ask President Pastides for no more than about 45 or 50 minutes to talk to the graduates. He said no. So I will take my 10 minutes and I will do what every graduate wants me to do, give you a few pieces of advice, and then sit down and shut up. I understand.
Let me first start with the parents and the friends who are here in support of these amazing leaders of America's future and global leaders. I would say to the parents that I know that today is day that is both a joyful day and a day filled with happiness. It's a joyful day because some of the parents today are saying, "Thank God they graduated". Others are thinking about the raise that they are going to receive as their graduate come right across here. That brings a tear to your eye.
To the graduates, I know that today is an exciting day, a nervous day and a day that you're thinking about your past, while focusing on your future. I want you to know from where I am standing the future is very, very bright. You can read the newspapers or watch the news and leave with this sense that things aren't going very well in the world and in the nation, but I will tell you that the best is yet to come. That because of your brilliance I believe that the cure to cancer and many of the challenges that we have physically may be sitting in the seats in front of me. I'm completely confident that the next new technology will come out of your cranial cavity. I believe that the best is yet to come for America and for the world because of you.
I want to just give you three small pieces to the life puzzle that I wish I knew when I was sitting in your seats. One piece is simply that failure is not final if you refuse to quit. The second piece is that if you want to stand out in life, stand up for someone who cannot stand up for themselves. The third piece is to hold on to your dreams.
Let me talk about the first piece for just a second here. I remember growing up in a single parent household and struggling in school. As a matter of fact, as a freshman, growing up, I started to drift in the wrong direction. Has anyone drifted in the wrong direction before? Good, none of the graduates but some of you guys have. That's fantastic. Let us have a prayer for liars. Anyways we're just going to keep this moving on.
Well as a freshman in High School I basically flunked out. I failed world geography; I think I'm the only United States Senator to ever fail civics. No wonder I didn't go to the University of South Carolina, that's what you were thinking, eh? And then I went to the United States Senate and realized that I had a lot of company with my Senators who've not done so well in civics. I also failed Spanish and English, now when you fail Spanish and English, they don't call you bilingual, they call you bi-ignate, because you can't speak in any language. That's where I found my unhappy self.
But in the Southern tradition, I had a strong mother who believed that sometimes you have to love your child in a tangible way. Can I get a halleluiah out there?! Yes, yes, my mother believed that sometimes love comes at the end of switch. I say a switch is a Southern apparatus of encouragement. And she loved me a lot. All from my beltline to my ankles, she encouraged me to go to summer school and I took her encouragement seriously. And then I also met a mentor who really helped to form my thought process around the fact that there is power in education.
You know in life you are going to fail, there's no doubt about that. The key is to fail forward. Let what you have failed at teach you what is possible. Don't let it stop you from achieving, let it be the foundation for your future success. I have failed in business, in politics, and often times academically but I am here standing before you. If you realize that failure is not final then you will not quit.
The second lesson that I think is very important, is if you want to stand out in life, stand up for someone who cannot stand up for themselves. This whole notion, this piece of the puzzle, reminds me of a good friend of mine, Molly and George Green. They were a very successful business couple. They owned a company called General Engineering Labs in South Carolina. They did very well for a long time and they started to travel the world and they realized through some of their visits in Africa that many of the diseases and challenges facing folks living in Africa came from no access to clean water. So they sold their company and they dedicated the rest of their lives to starting what we now know as the Water Missions International where they have provided over the last few years millions of gallons of clean water to help solve the problems in Africa.
Here locally there's a young lady I met in my office last week who's 14 years old. She was diagnosed with brain cancer and it affected her optical nerves and now she's legally blind. But instead of sitting on the sidelines, she has decided that she will spend the rest of her life making sure that other kids like her have the highest quality of life and this year she started a prom for kids with cancer. We can all make a difference and we all should make a difference.
The third piece of the life puzzle is to hold on to your dreams. I first pray that you have some amazing dreams to hold on to. Because if you have amazing dreams amazing things will happen. Now there is a challenge I have learned. The bigger your dream the bigger your obstacle. The bigger the promise the bigger the problem. Do not let that stop you. I think of folks like Walt Disney, is everyone familiar with Disneyworld? He was fired from his first job because he lacked creativity. Oprah Winfrey. She was fired from a T.V station because she was just not fit for T.V. Amazing. And your own Darius Rucker, playing in Five Points, having a good time, working in a record store, when there were record stores to work in, life has changed. And now we all know Hootie and the Blowfish and certainly we know his Country fame.
Now I will tell you not all of my dreams have come true. I have been patiently waiting for the opportunity to sing before an audience of thousands and thousands and thousands of people. And I will tell you that I am going to try it, in spite of the fact that President Pastides said I could not. I'm going to sing for you the song that was so important when I graduated from High School, it was a song called "Hold On to Your Dreams'. It was by a group named Ouija, a long time ago.
Will you go ahead and start the music sir? Wait, oh well, there is no music. Well you could just help me out a little bit (started snapping his fingers in rhythm). Thank you. "Hold on to your dreams". Never mind. Now we know what he said don't sing the song. Thank you that one person, I heard you, I appreciate that.
Let me just tell you the words of the song, since good music is not what it used to be. The words are simple, "Hold on to your dreams, believe in love". Look around the room, at all the people here who love you, who are here to encourage you. "Believe in love and let love be the light to show you the way", because life is going to be hard and sometimes it will feel unfair, unless you believe that there is someone that loves you, someone who's there that cares. "Through the rain or the shine, to share your dreams, your heart, and your mind, hold on".
God bless you.