Speakers, including Dean Ben Vinson, encouraged graduates to both reflect on their time at GW and look to the future after graduation.

1. Moving onward

In his address to the graduates, Vinson recalled moments in history that “encapsulated an onward movement,” like the famous portrait of George Washington crossing the Delaware River.

“For most of us what we do and what we experienced is not going to be written down in history books,” he said. “But that’s what I like about this word onward, because it describes what’s next for you.”

Vinson said that while the initial steps of moving onward can be scary, everyone eventually finds their footing.

“I continue to have to navigate obstacles, make difficult choices, come to terms with the roadblocks and learn to celebrate the smallest of victories,” Vinson said. “For me, and for most of us, these are the acts of journey, of moving onward.”

2. ‘The readiness is all’

Alan Wade, a theatre professor, framed his speech as a play between two characters: one of whom was himself and the other a director casting a commercial selling graduation caps and gowns.

Wade gave advice to graduates by quoting Shakespeare.

“As Hamlet says ‘The readiness is all,'” Wade said. “They’re prepared for whatever their next step is.”

Wade added that when he dropped off his son at GW as a freshman, he leaned out of the window of his residence hall room and said, “Do you smell that? It’s freedom.”

“That freedom, that independence, is a necessary component in engaging the world, in creating one’s self and in owning that creation of being – something Hamlet famously muses on,” Wade said.

3. Life is a story

Katherine Bradshaw, the student speaker, asked graduates to think of their lives as stories with plots, characters and themes. Bradshaw, who double majored in classical studies and English, reminded the graduates that they have all been characters in someone else’s story and the protagonist in their own.

“When we each began the stories of our lives we had a myriad of blank pages to fill,” Bradshaw said. “Today we’re rapidly moving through those pages, filling them with the events, people and ideas that make up our individual journeys.”

Like these photos? You can purchase your personal photo from this graduation ceremony online at: www.hatchetphotos.com