Transcript
0:10 good morning and War Eagle first of all I like all of you graduates stand up for one second look in the area where you think your family is give your mother a nice round of applause a early Mother's
0:45 Day thank you you can see to president go Board of Trustees distinguished faculty administrators parents family family members and to you graduates thank you for having me thank you for giving me the opportunity to come here to speak to you this afternoon this morning you
1:16 know when I was first asked to serve as your commencement speaker I asked myself what could I say to you how would I say it to you then I thought about the significance of my own life and how my life changed when I came to Auburn in four years from a 18yar old teenager to a 22y old responsible young man one thing that
1:49 I it's hard to put in words and I'm I'm speaking to you not from Bo Jackson The Athlete but now Bo Jackson the parent I know that your parents are proud of you I've had my oldest to graduate college already may be hard to believe but yes
2:21 and my two youngest are enrolled here at Auburn right now freshman and sophomore I know when you all leave here that you're going to go places and I know that you're going to make not only your parents proud of you but you're going to make this University proud of you one thing that I've always said is that you can never keep an Alburn tiger
2:55 down from the time I came to Auburn from the time time I came to alurn I I was a quiet shy 18-year-old and the reason for that was because I'm the eighth of 10 kids and I have two sisters and myself we're born with the speech impediment we stutter when I came to Auburn Public Speaking was the last thing on my agenda I I I avoided it like the
3:25 plague I was afraid to even after football games My Fresh year I was afraid to get in front of the news camera to talk because I knew that I was going to get nervous I knew that I was going to start stuttering and and so forth and so on because when I was a kid in class I wouldn't answer one word answers because I knew that I would stutter in the class would make fun of me and laugh at
3:52 me and when I came here to Auburn that's one thing that my coaches my professors my teachers they taught me one thing that they taught me was to step outside of your comfort zone and do things that you would normally do and that's what I'm going to ask you all to do when you leave here step outside of your comfort zone take
4:24 chances not foolish chances but take chances because you never know what the world has for you out there there is a place out there in this big world for each and every one of you and it's up to you to go out there to grasp it you got to go out there and grab hold you got to take control of your life because I know for the past four five some of you six
4:57 years you've had the comfort of getting up going to class walking in class late getting a buddy to get notes for you and so forth and so on and and that's good because that's all part of being a college student now you got to go out and you got to make your own Footsteps in the sand like everybody else that came down the road be before you before myself you
5:27 got to go out and not only take responsibility for being a responsible adult but you got to go out and start making your own life you got to make your parents proud of you you got to make all of these professors and teachers that you've had for the past four or five years proud of you that's one thing that I always say if you're going to sit your goes High put them on the top of the shelf and climb for him
5:58 don't let anything or anyone deter you from reaching those goals you have to I kind of get I said to myself that that this wasn't going to happen that I wasn't going to get emotional but I know that my mother is looking down on on me and all of her grandkids all of our children right now and no one
6:30 would have ever thought that I would be on a stage speaking to the graduating class of 2009 I never thought that I would I me myself never thought that I'd be doing this that tells you how things can change in your
7:03 life I've been on the public speaking tour for almost 20 years now I've spoken to I've spoken to groups from elementary school to Fortune 500 companies and I am encouraged and excited every time I speak because I learned something new every time I sit up and I think about what you all are going to do when you leave here it really
7:35 doesn't matter as long as you go out and take what you've learned and put it to good use because I know each and every one of you want to be successful if you didn't you wouldn't be in here right now I sit and tell my kids I said it doesn't matter matter what you do the next four and a half years cuz I get my kids when they went off to
8:07 college I said you got four and A2 years then you're on your own my oldest did it in four so he's getting his Masters right now and my younger two they will be I think a sophomore and Junior next year my youngest my daughter she's majoring in Speech Pathology and my youngest son is Wireless engineering
8:38 major my my uh wife my kid's mother has her PhD from Auburn counseling psychology I have my degree from Auburn human Science school of human science I'm sorry Dr Brad bar if she's here um the thing that I sit and do with my kids I said go out and make your parents proud and I know that you all have made
9:10 your parents proud also from the standpoint that you all have grown from hyperactive Rowdy teenagers to respectable adults I know a lot of you going to miss over a lot of you are going to Miss places like the Supper Club sleeping in late doing the things that you've done for the past four or five years but you
9:41 know that's just like I said earlier that's all part of growing up you don't realize what the world out there have for you do like I did get outside of that box that you've grown accustomed to go places where you where you never thought that you would go meet people that you never thought that you would get a chance to meet cuz that's the only way that you're going to enjoy life get
10:13 outside of the box make things happen be your own person thank you for having me God bless you and most of all keep Auburn in your prayers keep Balor in your heart and War Eagle [Applause]