Taking the next step

President will prime graduates for life, Texas A&M for upper tier

By: Kenny Ryan

Posted: 12/8/08

On Friday, students, friends and family of Texas A&M will celebrate the graduation of the latest class of Fightin' Texas Aggies. Thousands of Aggies will receive their diplomas as they walk the stage, undergoing a metamorphosis into adulthood as they enter the parallel dimension known as "the real world."

It's a ritual that has occurred many times before, but this time it's different - this time, it's unique. A&M strives to provide the best commencement speakers at its graduation ceremonies, and this year it has raised the bar to the highest notch. President George W. Bush will be the commencement speaker Friday. This year, it will be the nation's commander in chief who greets A&M's kings and queens of campus to the post-collegiate world.

For a University that strives to become the nation's top institution of higher education, a commencement speech from the nation's top citizen is a good start.

Having the president of the country as a commencement speaker lends an incredible degree of prestige to A&M. Bush brings a wealth of experience to the table. Eight years in the White House is eight years of constant challenges and tough decisions. College students will find themselves facing hard choices when they graduate: Where will they work? Where will they live? Who will they live their lives with? These choices may not carry the gravity that weighs on almost every presidential decision, but it's still beneficial to receive advice for the mundane from "The Decider."

Though I wish I could attend the graduation ceremony to witness a president speak, I can't help but wish it wasn't this president. I don't have anyone in mind, but really, any other president would do. There's just something that strikes me as perverse about having the president of what the government has finally confessed is an economic recession greeting graduates into the tainted economy.

I've heard it said that nobody learns as much from a correct decision as they do from a wrong one. If this is true, our commencement speaker will have more learned lessons on hand to teach the graduating class than just about any other speaker out there.

Criticisms aside, Bush is still the president and it is still a major coup for the University to draw the son to the school where his father's library dwells.

A&M is a proud university with a rich culture. Aggies set the highest expectations for themselves because without ambitious aspirations, you can't achieve the best results. Being welcomed out of college by the leader of the most powerful nation in the world can do nothing but encourage the latest class of Aggies to dream big, work hard and never give up hope.

Kenny Ryan is a senior telecommunication media studies major.