Make it Happen

BELIEF requires action. Belief requires a new solution. Belief requires a persistence. Belief requires discipline. Belief requires rest. Belief requires asking for help. Belief requires asking the right questions. And may I encourage you to start those questions with YOU.

You have achieved so much, but up until this moment your life has been seeking this education, offering answers to other people’s questions — your professors, your parents, society.  Now that you have achieved this degree, now what?  Is this degree yours?  Or your parents? Is the next chapter of your life, for you?  Or to outrun your inherited fears?  Or prove that you are enough?  How do you take this degree and use it for your highest good?

For our communities highest good?  What does it take to set up your life to pursue what truly makes you happy?  What are your values now? Before you rush to any jobs you have lined up or will pursue, I’d ask you to try and ask yourself the needful questions. Before jumping into life, before going out into the open sea, start with asking yourself, WHO ARE YOU?

Like:

• WHO ARE YOU REALLY?
• WHAT MATTERS TO YOU?
• WHAT IS SUCCESS FOR YOU?
• ARE YOU LIVING YOUR HEARTS DESIRES OR YOUR PARENTS EXPECTATIONS?
• WHAT IS THE WISDOM IN YOUR PARENTS EXPECTATIONS?
• WHAT HABITS CAN YOU CREATE TO KEEP YOURSELF
• HEALTHY AND HAPPY AND CLEAR OF MIND?
• WHERE DO YOU FIND JOY?
• WHAT DO YOU WANT?
• DOES THAT DESIRE GIVE YOU PEACE OR ANXIETY?
• WHAT MAKES YOU SO HAPPY YOU LOSE TRACK OF TIME?

You are your first story. Investigate the story of your life. For it is yours now. Once I left these halls 31 years ago, our worlds were different but oh so similar.  You have the era of fake news, we had that era of the front page news giving way to the details of Gary Hart and his affair. Suddenly our watchdog duties were to compete with the 24/7 clickbait cable news coverage for any political figure having a scandal.

Though I was taught by the best professors the power of WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, HOW… and WHY in order to safeguard the fourth pillar of democracy, I entered a news media era upended by chaos, transition and the unpredictable internet on the horizon. What remained was the continued drip of stories centering Black people in the narratives of crime and violence. Or worse, neglecting our stories to the point of invisibility.

Our true humanity was missing. Since the news industry was shifting towards an entertainment model fueled by more scandal and more fear, I knew I WOULD NOT BE ABLE to tell the truth about Black people. But that’s what I wanted to do with my hard earned degree— I wanted to tell a wider breath of our story, maybe because I desired a more epic story of myself.

Like who was I really?  Who are Black people really? Which lead me to a pivotal question:  Was I going to be able to tell that truth in traditional journalism?  Or within corporate advertising who had their own limiting ideas and budgets for Blackness?

So I posed those questions and I listened and I heard: Tell the truth through fiction. So instead of choosing either career path in traditional journalism or my peaked interest in advertising, both of which would have given me immediate financial stability, I chose to pursue a screenwriting career I knew near nothing about but gave me tremendous joy and goosebumps when I engaged in the storytelling. But remember I tasted 24 hours of flat broke and I didn’t like it one bit, so before I acted on that inner guidance, I allowed myself to consider what it would be like to work in either field with an eye toward screenwriting on the side.

And immediately my spirit spoke loud and clear: “Girl, don’t do it. You know you and you will spend every penny of your salary, be in debt and it will be harder and harder to ever pursue that dream we’re scared of — that dream career of telling the truth through fiction — that storytelling that makes us lose track of time, that makes us the happiest,  that makes us the proudest.”

And that choice, on that day, brought me to where you see me now.  Sure I journeyed through a career in retail, a couple stops at the unemployment office, some stints as a background extra and an entry level Hollywood job that paid $188 a week for 3 weeks out of the month, BUT I also found that the magic of mentorship, the confidence of my education and the promise of a consistent work ethic, a core community and a spirit of gratitude, would open my biggest door as early as 25.

And I only made that choice because I stopped, took a breath, and asked myself a question and learned to LISTEN. At a very critical point in my journey, I was able to discern the noise from the outside world and within from the guiding force at the center of my soul. I firmly believe you need a spiritual center. A practice of some sort to anchor you to the knowing within. A way to have a conversation with yourself to ask the honest questions. Sometimes that requires meditation. Sometimes a trusting friend or family member to mirror back to you. It may require journaling, or a long walk, or an expanding relationship with God, but it will definitely require a lot of deep breaths. Take them.

If you ask the right questions, you will be led to the answers you need to tell the story of your life. That includes your career.  So, in your work — after you do your start paperwork — be the first to ask yourself, what are your biases?  And how do they lead you in forming the questions?  And are your questions designed to get the answers you think are the answers?  Have you first stopped to ask yourself what questions should I even be asking? Or do you jump right in with unconscious thought?

Graduating from this illustrious university, we are trained to defend our thesis, our opinion… but let your opinion be a marker for your curiosity not the compass to guide you to prove yourself right.   Once you have that spark of curiosity… think of the many ways you can ask that initial question that will likely lead you down a rabbit hole of inquiry and exploration.  Allow your hunches to guide you to the valley of discovery, but be sure not to only look for the things that validate your experience.  I am asking you to really allow questions to be an art form.  A dance.  A delight.  A discovery.  A childlike wonder. Let questions become your surrender to the story waiting to be uncovered.

When we seek the answer we listen for what we want to hear.  

When we ask the question we learn to listen. 

The practice of listening offers a bridge to understanding. Practice the art of listening to first understand yourself.  It will give you the needed compassion and empathy to understand others. You will hear the truth through anger and vitriol, you will hear the truth through insecurity, and stuttering and even bad use of grammar.  Because you will have first heard waves of truth within yourself despite the tides of your own emotions.

Ask the questions.  And trust that the answers will lead you to what you really want to do or where you really want to go.  And if you “lose your way,”  ask “why did I need to go down this road?” “How do I return to who I am?”  And listen for that lesson that will lead you back to your path with greater wisdom.

WHY?  WHY AM I ASKING THIS OF YOU?

I’m selfishly asking you to do this because if we can put one more healthy person in the world, that is a ripple effect of change.  But if we put a healthy journalist/writer into the world, that will rebuild the fourth pillar, and that will lead to our best chance of a real multiracial democracy and society.  That’s my charge for you, Class of 2023. Impact the world with your questions.

In doing so, YOU will help write the story of America and the world by asking it to deal with the questions it does not want to face.  And your mastery of how to craft story will allow us to truly hear ourselves.  And in that listening will be our opportunity to MAKE. IT. HAPPEN.  We can make happen a better world.  And it does start with each one of us… but especially you because you’re the esteemed graduating class of 2023! Godspeed.

Dean Whitaker, esteemed alum, faculty, staff, parents, grandparents, family and friends congratulations on the victory of graduation and completion. It takes a village!

Congratulations To All!