Commencement Speech at the University of Virginia's College at Wise
by Oleg Rudnik

(Opening Comments in Russian)

To my great surprise I see that a few of you did not understand what I said. Therefore, I shall switch to a language, which, as you probably have figured out by now, is not my native tongue. Hi! See, any time I say "Hi", right away I hear: "Where are you from?" But that doesn't matter - the sentiments I am here to convey today, I believe, are universal and can be understood in any language.

Dear graduates, parents, faculty, Chancellor Kaplan! It is truly a great honor to stand here before you today. Congratulations to each of you and to your loved ones on this, the celebration of your wonderful accomplishments. Allow me to join you in thanking the faculty who taught you and learned with you, as well as your families, who sacrificed for you and supported you. I'd like to congratulate your parents, grandparents, and all your relatives, who through their contributions, both financial and spiritual, helped to make this day possible.

Your families are extremely proud of you. You can't imagine the sense of relief they are feeling. And now is the best time for you to ask them for money!

And speaking about money and education. Many grads see their education as a golden staircase leading to money. But you would be well advised to remember one thing - the difference between money and education is that your money can be lost or stolen, but you can never lose your education and no one can ever take it away from you.

In preparing my remarks for you today I had a choice. And that choice was whether to talk about myself and give you a lot of useful advice. But then I remembered the wise words of the great playwright, Oscar Wilde, who once cautioned: " The best thing to do with advice is to give it to someone else; because you can't use it yourself".

So instead, I decided to talk about you and your journey into the future, which begins today. This is a very special day - a defining moment in your lives. And I would like to share with you some quotes that can serve as signposts along that exciting, perilous and promising path to your tomorrow.

I am here to rejoice in your future; the future of you all graduates who are about to perform the next act of a wonderful drama entitled "Life". And the most remarkable thing in your case is that this drama has not yet been written. I envy you. How exciting it is to embark on an unpredictable pathÉ and to be able to expect the unexpectedÉ I really do envy you. And I am not alone.

Follow a course in life that you find challenging and how exciting the course of your life will be is for you to determine. The French writer Jules Renard wrote in his "Diaries": "I have created for myself such wonderful castles in the sky that even their ruins would be enough for me".

In your pursuit of success, have no fear. Have the courage to fight for your goals, and the integrity to stand by your convictions. Boldly build your castles in the sky; reach for the stars, even in broad daylight. Use the education you have received and the self-discipline that you have developed in order to receive it to make your dreams come true. Don't wait around for miracles to happen. Miracles do happen, by the way - they just can't be counted on 100%.

Do not expect the Holy Spirit to show up at your doorstep and point out which choices are right for you and which ones are wrong. And even less can you count on a "genie" emerging from a bottle. Let me tell you the story I know about a "genie". A husband and wife, both 60 years old walked on the beach, and sure enough, they found mysterious looking bottleÉ They open it, and "genie" pops out thanking them profusely and offering to grant them anything. And so the wife says "Well I am 60 years old, I already have a nice house and a car. I don't really need anything else. So now, I'd like to spend the next two years traveling with my husband all around the world first class". The genie says, " Your wish is my command" and voila! In her hands appear paid first class tickets, hotel reservations and a check for a couple million dollars.

"And what about you," the "genie" then asks the elated woman's husband. "Well, he answers, I am 60 years old and what I'd really like is a wife 30 years younger than me". Voila! And the man was suddenly 90 years old.

And speaking of being 90. Often, older people seem to assume that things were better - and even bigger - before. It's the same story with every generation. Most likely you will be telling your children the same thing. I, on the other hand, cannot say: "it was better before." I was born and raised under the system of Soviet Communism, where I had very little choice about my future. Under that system, peoples lives were not their own to determine. I was lucky to leave Soviet Russia to seek a new life in the United States, where options in my life would not be limited by Communist Party bureaucrats. You see, to someone like me, raised under a Communist system, the words "land of opportunity" were not a clichŽ, they were a lifeline, a source of hope in an otherwise hopeless situation, a beacon of light in the totalitarian darkness. And the Communist system in Russia, which destroyed so many lives and wasted so much human potential has finally decayed and collapsed under its own weight. Communism is dead; socialism is a modest corrective to capitalism. Communism or capitalism education is a key to success or even to survival.

When 27 years ago I landed in New York City at age of 38 I did not speak a word in English. But my education did help me to get a job -- as a taxi driver! You see, I used my education and my skills to convince the owner of a taxi park that I was a professional driver. To tell you the truth, back then I did not even know where the ignition was on American cars.

But that experience taught me that in America there is always a way to reach whatever goal you set for yourself if you're willing to bring all your skills, patience, and determination to bear.

Later, I was lucky to get acting parts in some major American movies.

To get these parts was much easier, than to get a job as a cab driver in New York City. As some of you know I've worked with such Hollywood stars as Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, and Tommy Lee Jones. Subsequently, I became a Russian-language broadcaster and journalist for the Voice of America, heard daily in Russia, which is still taking its first shaky steps towards a lasting democracy.

But I am not here to lecture you. I would, however, like to share with you the wisdom of some famous and even not so famous people whose insights you might find both enlightening and useful. One of America's most successful playwrights, Neil Simon, once said: "Do not confuse passion with success. Passion is the joy of getting there. Success can be a trap". An unknown executive quipped, "I climbed to the top of the ladder, and suddenly found my ladder was against the wrong wall". Filmmaker Ken Burns made this observation: "Support science and the arts, especially the arts. They have absolutely nothing to do with the defense of the country - they only make our country worth defending". And the passionate and successful astronomer Carl Sagan once warned: "Equip yourself with a baloney-detection kitÉ Part of the job of education is to be able to tell what is baloney and what is not". And so it goes on and onÉ

Now you got your diplomas. You going to get rich, become famous, find a perfect spouse, and get a great job. You will be promoted and you will be fired (never your fault).

I promised not to lecture you, but as you completed this phase of your education, I allow myself to remind you that with education comes responsibility; that it is incumbent upon you to give back to society, at least part of what you have received, and to help others.

Renown American playwright William Gibson the author of " The Miracle Worker" also wrote wonderful play "Two for the Seesaw" in which the protagonist Jerry Ryan says: "The most important word after Love is the word Help".

Whatever you do or whatever you become, remember one thing - have pity for others. But as famous Austrian writer Stefan Zweig pointed out - there are two kinds of pity. One, the weak and sentimental kind, which is really no more than the heart's impatience to be rid as quickly as possible of the painful emotion aroused by the sight of another's unhappiness, that pity which is not compassion, but only an instinctive desire to fortify one's own soul against the sufferings of another; and the other, the only kind that counts the unsentimental but creative kind which knows what it is about and is determined to hold out in patience and forbearance to the very limit of its strength and even beyond.

I know that the main thing on your minds today as you listen to me speak is to get your diploma and get out of the sun and go to have fun with your loved ones.

But before you go permit me one more quote. Earlier, I mentioned miracles. Albert Einstein, one of the greatest minds of the last century, said that there are two ways of looking at the world - one could look at it as if no miracles existed at all - or as if everything is a miracle. The choice is yours.

And now look at the sky in broad daylight. Look! Oh, my God! That sky is full of stars, and all these stars are yours! Go, get them!

I wish you the best of luck! And I envy you. Thank you for listening.