It’s a beautiful day, and I'd like to start by talking
about...snow! Remember how we thought it was never going to go away? That we
would be stuck with these hulking mountains of snow, and forced to live like
that forever? And then two weeks ago, as
I was walking to class in Olin, I realized how just how little was left. While
I was busy cursing at it, juggling a thousand different things in my life, I
hadn’t even noticed that the snow had almost all disappeared. Thank goodness.
And, just like that, while we were busy battling crazy
long case studies, internship interviews, weekly quizzes and job searches, our
time at Babson has also melted away.
Today we all enter a new Season together. Hopefully, this
is Spring, and it is here to stay. It is time for every single one of us to bloom.
Babson has changed me irrevocably. My two years here were the first time I left home, the first time I
have lived anywhere outside of my home country. I am not sure what I came here
looking for, but I know I leave with more than I could ever have imagined. More
knowledge, more experience of the world, an expanded skill-set, a larger
network, a lot more friends, a mountain of memories, and a greater insight into
myself, my own strengths and weaknesses.
But most importantly, I think I have seen at Babson what may
be the means— at least A means-- to world peace. Or as close to it as we can
get, at least!
In these two years I met hundreds of people from all walks of life. I met, and fell absolutely in love with: the Peruvians who mothered me; the American Jews who messaged me their support every time something went wrong back home; the Christians from a number of countries who are among the most caring people I know; the atheists who showed me respect and were phenomenal friends; the Indians who took me for ice cream when I was down, and stayed at the hospital with me over night, even with a final the next morning; the Chinese who became among my most valued friends.
I found that Latin American culture is very like my own in terms of gender roles, and that mothers everywhere are as involved in their kids' lives as Pakistani mothers; that kenyans eat the same bread as I do, and also call it the same name - chapati, and that there was no way for me to differentiate between a gay person and a not-gay person. I found that every person I met was a Good Person.
In these two years I met hundreds of people from all walks of life. I met, and fell absolutely in love with: the Peruvians who mothered me; the American Jews who messaged me their support every time something went wrong back home; the Christians from a number of countries who are among the most caring people I know; the atheists who showed me respect and were phenomenal friends; the Indians who took me for ice cream when I was down, and stayed at the hospital with me over night, even with a final the next morning; the Chinese who became among my most valued friends.
I found that Latin American culture is very like my own in terms of gender roles, and that mothers everywhere are as involved in their kids' lives as Pakistani mothers; that kenyans eat the same bread as I do, and also call it the same name - chapati, and that there was no way for me to differentiate between a gay person and a not-gay person. I found that every person I met was a Good Person.
I met students from an infinite combination of backgrounds -- religions, nationalities,
sexual orientation, and socioeconomic background, and every. single. one. of
them was a Good Person.
Minute by minute and day by day, every single prejudice I
held, whether consciously or unconsciously, melted away—no match for real
personal encounters with real people. I became friends with individuals whom I
thought I did not, or could not like or understand, because of the “labels” I
had consciously or unconsciously applied to them. Except once I got to know you, I could no
longer see the labels.
If every person in the world—if just more people--could have
experience like ours at Babson—encounters with others in an environment that
respects and nurtures diversity-- I believe we all would be the better for it. The
community that exists here breaks stereotypes and barriers every day. Here,
gender, religion, sexual orientation, nationality, and race cease to
matter.
You see, Babson has taken away any excuse for prejudice that
I could ever have had. Never again in my life can I get away judging a group of
people based on a label affixed to them, because they are different from me. And
I hope it is the same for you.
In a world so visibly and tragically consumed by religious,
ethnic and other forms of intolerance and violence, my wish today for all of us is that the "real"
world never strips away this awareness and appreciation of diversity. That we
never lose the tolerance, thoughtfulness and sensitivity that we lived with
here at Babson. That, along with the hard skills, leadership and
entrepreneurship that Babson taught us, we
also use this love and understanding in every single deal, business or
otherwise.
37,000 alumni, 114 countries - can you imagine the impact?
I wish you all the best of luck, and an infinite amount of
love. "Pa makha de' kha" - May you always be faced with Good. Thank
you.
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