Believe Me, There is a Way

Last night the UCI Department of Education held its first-ever standalone graduation ceremony. The commencement recognized master's degree recipients and students who earned their teaching credential. I had the honor of reading the names of the honorees to an audience of several hundred. The featured speaker, Mary Roosevelt, has been my Education Department colleague since 1992. Mary's talk recounted her early teaching career in the slums of London, with later stints at the International School in Geneva and the United Nations School in New York. Mary's life is storied, bold, and lined with unremitting enthusiasm. Her commencement address was a charge to a new crop of teachers to live adventurously, citing the power of human imagination and will. Mary's closing line was, "If there's a will, believe me, there is a way." I followed up this morning with my own real-life application. Though I have an IV needle in my arm as I type, just four hours ago I was 40 feet under the sea in Shaw's Cove. With my friend, Wayne, I enjoyed gliding through the kelp forest in the company of rays, a shy Moray eel, and a reclusive horn shark. I'm listening, Mary, and I'm believing.