Georgia Southern University commencement

Colleges of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and of Science and Technology

10 December 2004

Dr. Lisa A. Rossbacher

President

Southern Polytechnic State University

1100 S. Marietta Parkway

Marietta, GA  30060

Prepare to be surprised.

And prepare to be surprising.

Life is all about surprises – and about how you deal with them. 

Engineer and automobile manufacturer Henry Ford once said, “One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do.”  You will be surprised by what you can do.

You will also be surprised by what others can do.  There is a famous quote from General George Patton that is one of many applications of military experience to the business world.  It is widely cited in management books:  “Don't tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.”

Allow yourselves to be surprised.

Don’t be trapped by other people’s assumptions about you and your life. 

When I was in college, I was surprised by the stereotypes other people tried to build around me.  In my junior year, I met my boyfriend’s family for the first time, and his mother invited some of her friends to a tea party to meet me.  (No pressure there.)  And just before her guests arrived, she took me aside and said she had a request for me.  “Listen, dear,” she said.  “If anyone asks you what your major is in college, would you mind lying and saying English or something?  It’s such a conversation-stopper when you say ‘geology.’  Nobody knows what to say next.”

I kept the major.  Dumped the boyfriend.  But I was very surprised that anyone thought that it was unusual – or surprising – for a woman to be a geologist.  And I learned something.

As college graduates, you have a responsibility for giving back to society.  That’s not a surprise.  Only 25% of adults in the United States hold bachelor’s degrees, so you are graduating into a relatively small group of people.  Your talents, your skills, your knowledge and experience mean that you have much to contribute to the world.  It’s no surprise that you will do so.

What will be a surprise is how each of you does that.

A recent study by the Department of Labor predicts that today’s young people will hold an average of nine jobs before the age of 32.  Some of those jobs you can predict – some you have already done – but some will be a surprise.  You all have much to give – I encourage you to honor that responsibility to make the world a better place.

You will also be surprised the opportunities that will be available to you.  I certainly was.  I was surprised when NASA offered to pay for my graduate education, if I was just willing to focus my research on Mars.  But I took a lot of teasing from the other graduate students about when I was going to actually do some field work.  So, just to shut them up, I applied to NASA’s astronaut program.  I was absolutely honest in my application. I admitted that I wear glasses.  I get car sick.  And I get really sea sick.  I didn’t even expect to hear back. 

So I was very surprised when I was notified that I was a finalist and that I was being invited to the Johnson Space Center for a week of interviews.  This was not a career direction I had ever really thought about, but it was so interesting and unexpected and surprising that I had to give it a try.  And that week-long interview was a fascinating experience, although it, too, was full of surprises  (including some of the medical exams, which I will not describe here).

Ultimately, I was not invited to join the astronaut program.  There were two reasons.  The official reason was that, although I passed all the medical exams with flying colors, I didn’t have a pilot’s license, and at that time NASA was only selecting experienced pilots, even for the mission specialist positions.

The unofficial reason was shared with me by one of the psychiatrists who was part of the interview process.  To this day, NASA has never selected a college professor for the regular astronaut program.  I know this will be a shock to some of you, but college professors don’t take orders as well as NASA would like.  When Mission Control says “Do this,” they want to hear “Roger that.”  They do not want to be surprised.  They don’t want to hear “Have you thought about approaching this problem a different way?” or “What if we tried an alternate solution?”  or “Let’s examine your fundamental assumptions again.”  So it wasn’t a surprise that I wasn’t selected, but it was a monumental surprise that I was considered so thoroughly.

Life is full of surprises.  Be ready.

When I was asking around for advice about giving a commencement speech, the most succinct advice I received, as usual, was from my husband.  He said, simply, “Be brief.  Be funny.  Be gone.”  So my surprise for him today is – for once – that I have actually followed his advice. 

Thus, I would like to conclude with a line of poetry that was written by Alice Walker, one of today’s foremost American authors  -- and a Georgia native.  She wrote, in “Revolutionary Petunias and Other Poems”:

“Expect nothing. Live frugally

On surprise.”

Congratulations to all of today’s graduates.  Good luck – and may your futures be full of surprises.

Thank you.