While SFA graduates were reflecting on their past and looking to the future Saturday morning, Gov. Rick Perry asked them to fast-forward to the very end of their lives, and asked, "What will be your legacy?"
In Perry's commencement address to the May 2008 graduating class, he encouraged them to live a life of meaning and purpose.
"You've got one foot in the old, familiar world of college," he said. "Then you've got another foot in a whole other world, whether you call it adulthood, the real world or graduate school, things are fixin' to change."
Perry shared a humorous personal college experience of cutting it close on graduating from Texas A&M because he had $300 in outstanding parking fines, saying, "In 1972 dollars, that was a pretty serious amount in tickets."
Putting aside the funny aspects of college, Perry made a plea to the students to thank those who have helped them achieve their degree, including their parents and professors. He said the best way to thank a person who invested in them is to invest in another person.
"While the diploma you are going to receive is important, it's what you do with that diploma that matters the most," Perry said. "A life of meaning and purpose is not guaranteed by a piece of paper.
"Are you just going to chase success, or are you going to pursue significance?" he asked.
Before concluding his speech, Perry addressed possible worries the students might have about entering the "real world" with reports of a faltering economy.
"You are fortunate to be heading into a Texas economy, which may very well be the strongest in the history of the state," he said.
He added that despite what mainstream media is reporting about the national economy, "things in Texas are going pretty doggone good."
"The number one natural resource we have is our people — you," Perry said. "There is no better place to live, no better place to pursue your dream than the Lone Star State."
SFA President Baker Pattillo also addressed the students and their families packed into the coliseum and shared two statistics with the graduating class.
He said that only one out of every 30 people in Texas is a college graduate, and one-half of the graduating class is comprised of students who are the first in their family to graduate college.
"While this is a big day for the students, we know it's a big day for their families, as well," Pattillo said. "I am also aware that tomorrow is Mother's Day, and I'm not aware of any gift a mother can receive that will be more important this weekend than have a son or daughter graduate from SFA. Congratulations."
