it’s always struck me that the process of invention is a little bit like the process of being a college student. after all, as an inventor, you go into a lab and you have a strong but perhaps vague idea of what you want to achieve. by working hard, experimenting, learning along the way, and using as a guide the work of those who went before you–you advance down the road towards discovery. you may not end up where you started–or even where you expected, but if you are successful, then begins another difficult process of trying to make your invention work in the world around you.
like inventors, many of you have traveled the same road over the last four years here in university. the person you are today–the goals you have today, the dreams you have today–may be different from the ones you had when you first came here. and now, you are becoming prepared to take all that you’ve learned here and make it work in the world around you.
i believe that young people are graduating today into a world filled with more hope and more promise than in any other time in our history. i know sometimes that might sound strange, because we think always of the dangers and challenges in the world around us. but i have studied history in my life. i do believe this is an era of great promise and great opportunity.
for those of you who have seen our ads, you know that they end with the phrase,“everything is possible.”a cynic might say that just a marketing slogan–but i actually believe that. i don’t think every is easy, i don't think things happens right away. but i do think that everything is possible.
for all the remarkable advancements we have seen in recent years, nothing has matched the pow