It gives me great pleasure at this time to call upon governor mitt romney to give the address. [applause] mr. Romney thank you. President , abbott, trustees, faculty, honored guest, and we ary parents, well done and congratulations. Twoo you parents, the years of investment and prayers have added up to this joyful achievement. Hopefully you are about to experience a new american dream, which is no longer owning your own home. It is getting your kids out of the home you own. [laughter] mr. Romney you have just heard i have been awarded an honorary degree. When i think of all the times i have been here for debates, forums, and rallies, i might argue that this is an earned degree. 16 years of education has made your world a great deal bigger than the world of your childhood. It is a funny thing about little kids, they do not see much beyond what is right around them. They see their family, their school, maybe their city. But they cannot imagine different places. Their vision is like a small circle, bounded by their very limited its very. Your world now is breathtakingly large, almost without boundaries. With so much vast this semipossible direction to take. Some of you may feel understandably anxious and uncertain. You may even be tempted to look for a smaller, more comfortable world, one that is less complex and less demanding of you. That is not who you are and that is not what this place has prepared you to do. To experience a purposeful life, one thing you are going to have to do is this live a large life. Living large needs embracing every fruitful dimension of life. It means continuing to expand your world and engaging it as fully as you are able. Let me offer a few suggestions on how to do that. The first involves friendship. I remember sitting in a Business Class looking around the room and thinking to myself that i would probably never see any of these guys again. All my attention was focused on what was being taught. But you know what . I had forgotten everything that was being taught. It is the classmates i remember and it is though friends that i value most today. 40 years since my graduation the guys in my six year study six person study group continue to get together. We have congratulated each other on our highs and consoled each other on our lows. Believe it or not, your parents can become even closer friends than they are today. My friend decided to take his father to every single ole miss Football Game home or away. His father is 95 years old. He lives in vermont, his dad lives in north carolina. His fatherson excursions would mean a lot of travel, a lot of time together, and long talks. He dug deep into understanding his dad, his personality, his dreams, and his fears. Delving so far into his fathers personhood their friendship deepened, their relationship expanded in such interesting ways that a noted your publisher knopf, has decided to publish a book about the experience this fall. Your life will be larger if you value and nourish friendships. Friendships from here, from your home, and from the growing circle of your life. Now for most of you, living life to the fullest will also mean marriage and children. I do not expect everyone here to believe as i do, the bible is the word of god or that it is inspired by god. If not, then at least you have to acknowledge that it represents the wisdom of the ages, written by extraordinary thinkers and philosophers. Either way, its counsel warrants attention. In its opening pages it says this adam gives this direction. Therefore, shall a man leave his father and mother included onto his wife, and they should be one flesh. We get the part about one flesh but the part about leaving mom and dad and getting married trips some up. Im not going to tell you when to tie the knot. You have parents do that. I will tell you that marriage has been single most part of my life by far. Marriage involves passion, conflict, emotion, fear, hope, compromise, understanding. In short it is living large. And then there are children. The bible also has advice. Children are a heritage of the lord. As arrows are in the hands of the mighty man, so are children of the youth, happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. I am not sure whether five sons qualifies as a full quiver but i can tell you they brought immeasurable happiness. Into my point, they engaged my wife and i in life in ways that we could not have expected. On one occasion we were invited to speak to Harvard Business school about our chores as careers our choice of careers. She was reluctant because the other two couples would also be speaking on the other topic and both of them had chosen to become wall street bankers. In the class, the other couples went first, i followed, and ann went last. She explained that while she had expected to have a home outside of the home in the future, her job had required more of her than she had ever understood. She was psychologist, tutor, counselor, nurse, practitioner nutritionist budget director , and more. When she sat down the class with silent and then they rose in standing ovation. Golda meier, the former Prime Minister of israel was asked what was her greatest accomplishment. She did not hesitate, raising my daughter she said. Marriage and children expand your world and engage you more fully in it. There is a family burger joint i like whose founder put a little book out of homespun wisdom. He says to be happy requires three things. Number one, someone to love, number two, something to look forward to and number three, something to do. In other words, work. You might be inclined to think that a garden of eden life be preferable to working at job but you would be wrong. Im convinced adam and eve would have been bored to tears if they had stayed in that garden. No kids, no job. I think adam being made to grow food by the sweat of his brow was a blessing, not a curse. Theres a lot not to like about a job the early alarm clock the rushhour traffic, the stress. Work engages you in life to come to know more people and to learn the intricacies of the enterprise that employs you. Do not waste time bemoaning your job. Do not skip with the minimum of effort. Dive in, get more from your job than a paycheck. Hard work is living large. Now there is a part of life that you will not welcome. Bad things. Bad things that happen to you. If you are like i was, you imagine that that things happen infrequently and when they do happen to other people. I used to sit around church and look around the congregation. Life seemed to be nothing but puppies and pansies for everybody. My church asked me to serve as the pastor. As pastor, i got to really know the people behind all the Smiling Faces and to my surprise, many of them held went my wife and i call a bag of rocks behind their back. It could be a chronic illness, a battle with some kind of addiction, a child that could not keep up in school, unemployment, financial crises withering loneliness, or a marriage on the rocks. To my surprise, almost every Single Family faced on kind of challenge or another. They all had a bag of rocks on the back. We will all hurt. Engaging in your world means accepting the hurt, confronting it, and endeavoring to ascend above it so that you can keep pursuing a fulfilling and abundant life. During my campaign, i met sam schmidt in las vegas. In january of 2000, is indianapolis racing car hit the wall. This father of Young Children spent five months on a respirator and was rendered quadriplegic. He can move nothing below his neck. We spoke about his life today. His morning begins with a threehour routine bladder bowel, teeth shower, getting dressed. But instead, sam owns and manages a racing car team. Which regularly dominates the firestone, winning 60 races. He has begun to drive again. He has a corvette. It has been fitted out with special controls. He accelerates by blowing into a tube break, he sucks air out. To turn left or right, he looks left or right. He has warned his racing buddies on the track, you have to keep the bikinis out of the grandstand. His disability is still there. He endorse it every day. Every hour, but that is not kept him from fully engaging in life. Your career may be different than you expect. The biggest departure from mine career path came when i decided to run for office. When i stepped in the auditorium to debate ted kennedy in boston, i turned to my wife and said in your wildest dreams, did you see me running for senate . She said you are not in my dreams. She did not say that, that was a joke i bought. [laughter] through the occupations ive had, i have experienced successes and as you know, failures. Asked what it felt like a little president obama, i said not as good as winning. Failures of the fine you are. Some people measure their life by their secular successes how high they got on the latter, did they do better than her high school classmates. That is the success you are looking for, you are bound to be disappointed. Life has too much chance and serendipity. More importantly, if your life is lived for those things, it will be shallow and unfulfilling. The real wealth in life is in your friendship. Your marriage, your children, what you have learned in work, what you have overcome, your relationship with god. And how much you can treated to others. The last dimension, contribution to others is often overlooked and undervalued. Tom monahans father died when he was just fou his motherr. She entrusted him to the catholic church. He enrolled in michigan. Tuition was beyond his reach, to meet costs, he bought and ran a pizza shop. He called his shops dominoes, and tom became wealthy. He bought a bugatti 48 . 4 million. He bought the Detroit Tigers and one the world series. When i met him in 1998, i was surprised to find him seated in a closet sized space. He sold the tigers in the cars. He signed what was called the millionaires vow of poverty. He would not dry a luxury car or assume any trappings of wealth. That included him trading his Impressive Office for the small cubicle i found them in. He explained that in reading the bible and the essays of cs lewis, he was reminded of his upbringing in the catholic orphanage. He wanted to devote his years to service. Shortly thereafter, on behalf of my firm, i recheck to tom to buy dominoes for over 1 billion. All but a small living stipend he then turned around and donated to catholic charities. He found a college and named it not after himself, but after the mother of god. They maria zave maria university. Building dominoes from nothing winning the world series, driving that bugatti you can guess his answer. He said i have had enough toys to know how important they are not. It was giving back to the university. Living life in fullness includes serving others and doing so without pride or personal gain. It will fill your heart, expand your world i have seen that kind of service in my own family. My sister has devoted the last 45 years to the care of her down syndrome son. My wife volunteered as a teacher for at risk girls. My mom was a frequent visitor to the homes of shutins and widows. My brotherinlaw served in the navy, my cousin was a foster mom to 57 kids. My dad and i both ran for office. That last item, what is it have to do with service . I know for some, politics is an occupation a fine one at that. For dad and me, they came at a time when our careers were over. We believed we could help people if elected. Most of you probably will not run for office. But the country needs all of you to serve. America faces daunting challenges. Generational poverty, looming debt, a warming climate particularly today. And a world that is increasingly dangerous and tumultuous. Washington appears in at, powerless, and without an effective strategy to overcome any of those. America needs your passion, your impatience with an action, your participation. You have the opportunity to take part in one of americas greatest endeavors new hampshires primary. Get involved with the candidate of your choice, worked a phone bank, margin a parade, like my favorite the fourth of july. Attend a town meeting and ask the question. New hampshire is the greatest president ial proving ground we have. The enduring impact is only as certain as a next generation of citizens who get involved. Engaging in your world includes engaging in citizenship. And so, this cozy little world of your childhood is gone. You may be tempted to create for yourself that same kind of small, safe circle concentrating on entertainment for yourself. Doing the minimum at work. Reading nothing, avoiding meaningful commitments complaining about the inevitable unfairness is of life. Alternatively, you could live large by expanding your world engaging, constantly learning, overcoming reversals, nourishing friendships, engaging in citizenship, and serving others. That is the road less traveled, and it will make all the difference. God bless you on your journey. Thank you. [applause] a conversation with former staffers who worked with george h. W. Bush. Examining the phenomenon known as science the nihilism. A little bit later, president george w. Bush giving the Southern Methodist University Commencement address. Senators will gavel in before the patriot act expires. Following later remarks, the senate will review debate on the freedom act which would extend the prevailings data collection, requiring the nsa to get a warrant and asked phone companies. Watch live coverage of the u. S. Senate on cspan2. Coming up next, the conversation with former staffers who worked for george h w bush. They discuss their editions on the white house, the federal government, and how they prepare them for their future careers. Judy smith, Deputy Press Secretary of the former president who founded a Company Became the inspiration for scandal. It is moderated by frederick clore, ceo of the c
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