Congratulations to the classes of 2020, 2021, and 2022!
On Sunday, June 12, 2022 the department formally celebrated graduates from the 2022 graduating class, as well as students from the 2020 and 2021 cohorts who came back for the ceremony.
2022 program: http://bit.ly/45vdx9H
Address to English Graduands, 2022
Congratulations first of all on your graduation. You have conquered all the doubts and hesitations with which you arrived at Stanford and managed to complete your degrees. That is no small achievement.
It is conventionally said that it takes a village to bring up a child. But in fact, the more appropriate statement is that it takes a strong team to complete a degree. This team needs a very good head coach, likely in the person of your mother or another matriarch, and a whole set of other significant assistants, including fathers, aunties, uncles, neighbors, and a whole lot more.
You will no doubt be offered many pieces of advice as you step into your new lives. I have three general principles to share with you as you proceed. First, is to always remember that people are our most important infrastructure. What this means is that wherever we find ourselves, our most important task is to fortify people, to help affirm and nourish them, and to give them self-belief when this is lacking. This process starts from those who are closest to us, but extends into the world of work, friends, and even encounters with strangers. Always help people to flourish wherever you find yourself.
The second principle has to do with the truth and how to declare it. This is no simple matter. You will find, as you proceed, that the truth may be painful, that you will often be persuaded that it is not the right time to tell the truth, or that you may suffer dire consequences if you tell it. But it is always important to try and strip things down to the bare necessities and to tell the truth as it appears to you at all times. This does not mean hitting other people over the head with what you think is the truth, or not changing your mind. But as you cultivate the habit of seeking the truth and telling it, you will see that people come to value your character and your advice, and that you will always be relied upon as someone who provides light in places of darkness.
The third and final principle is perhaps the simplest, but the one that we are most likely to ignore. And it is this: always keep alight your love of stories. You must already have a love for stories, otherwise you would not have done a degree in English. When people go on vacation, what they come back with is stories of the places they have been to and of their experiences. In fact, there is no true vacation without stories. Stories are told when people get married and have children, but they are also told when they are bereaved or in despair. Learn to pay attention to all stories and to find truth in them. Every story you hear bears a lesson for you, no matter how it might appear to be distant in culture, religion, or sexual orientation from you. We live in a forest of stories, and it is by listening to them that we learn how to navigate our way into growth and wisdom.
And so, let us praise our teams and say again: Thank You!
Ato Quayson
Professor of English and Chair of the English Department at Stanford