2008 Tufts Vieira Commencement Address Pt 1

0:01 thank you president Becka thank you to the faculty and to fellow honores trustees the alumni friends families and graduates this is very emotional um because I realize if I were to apply here today I'd never get in so I'm really grateful to be invited back I don't make speeches um despite what I do for a living I'm basically kind of shy uh but about a little over a year ago Larry you know Larry L lar called he

0:32 said to me listen I want you to give this speech in 2008 and I had just started at the Today's Show and everything I read said that the show was going to tank now that Katie was gone and I said listen Larry I could really screw up my job and then you're not going to want me here you know giving the commencement address and he sort of laughed and he said don't worry about it and then I said plus I I don't even know

0:51 what I would say to these students and he said oh you got a year to think about it and then there must have been a gust of wind because his voice sort of trailed off and the last thing I heard him say was speak from your heart Meredith so for the past year I've been trying to think about what I should say to you um obviously I should try to inspire you or maybe uh alert you to

1:13 some of the potholes along the way that you're going to face or I could cut right to the Chase and tell you the real story behind Barbara Walters and Star Jones um yeah I know I know and I do know um actually you know what I'm gonna get to that I am gonna get to that but first yeah but first as I look out over your faces um the graduates I'm so impressed by the mission of this school to create

1:41 real leaders because back when I was here I was a student here from 1971 to 75 and uh I wasn't you know what I'm going to be honest I wasn't much of a leader except for January of 1975 I led a group of female students across the campus streaking literally yeah and and it was really cold I remember that and at one point I I looked you know over my shoulder and the only behind I saw was

2:13 mine so I totally relate to the students out here the graduates who might be a little scared right now maybe you don't know where you're headed maybe you haven't found your passion maybe your parents are looking at you like what are you going to do uh and you're scared I I felt all of that I felt very lost and then again in Jan A lot happened in that January I got to tell you in 1975 I took

2:37 a class here in broadcast journalism it was past fail I don't even know why I took it I had no interest none I didn't see myself as a broadcaster in my future and I found that I I liked it I really liked it and at the end they had a final project and they we were broken down into groups of four or five and we each had to do a mini radio documentary and I happen to be the one chosen to narrate

2:58 ours and they brought in a muckety muck from CBS to critique it a man named Bill shrim a wonderful man who's since passed on and he listens to all these documentaries and when ours comes up he says who's whose voice is that and I rais my hand he says I want to see you after class I thought oh my God what's going to happen I go out into the hallway and he says have you decided what you want to do with the rest of

3:20 your life now being a tough student I knew philosophical deep question Ponder for a moment and I did and then I said I don't know you know and he saidwell I do I truly believe if you open up your mind you have a future in this business and he offered me an internship a few weeks later I learned something that is probably the first lesson I'm going to impart to you remember to always ask questions no

3:48 question is too stupid you're not as smart as you think you are you never will be there's always room to learn don't be scared to ask but you're going to find that in in life uh occasionally people will not be on your side and then what do you do when you hit that first wall well mine occurred about two years later I had moved from Radio to television Providence Rhode Island and about a year into that job and I felt

4:14 pretty secure I was brought in by the news director on a Friday because that's when they do it to you and he said you know what you don't have what it takes and they let me go and I grew up in Providence I went home to my family home I'm in my bedroom crying and my dad comes in and he says what's the matter and I told him and he said well do you think you have what it takes and even

4:39 though I didn't I said yeah I I think I do and he says so why do you care what anybody's going to say to you well based on that that pep talk or maybe serious PMS I did go in that Monday and I I basically pinned him to the wall you know when I think back on I said you know what I don't care what you think I am going to make it and now I might have

5:00 freaked him out but he gave me a second chance and since then we have become very good friends but I did learn a lesson about believing in yourself