thanks for coming out everyone hopefully
you’ll feel that the next ten minutes of
your life were pretty well spent so just
as a show of hands how many of you are
freshmen in the crowd lots lots of
freshmen all right now how many of you
feel like even though you’ve only been
here a few weeks everybody around you
seems to already have their entire life
story mapped out ooh yes so so when I
came to Hopkins I felt exactly this way
so when I got here I actually wanted to
major in economics and become an
investment banker the plan was make a
ton of money more cash on like a dream
of retire at the age of 40 and lived the
rest of my life on a yacht but I think
that after a few weeks of being here
that wasn’t going to pan out I’m just
not a numbers guy and I knew I wouldn’t
be happy doing that day in day out every
single day for the rest of my life and
it didn’t help that I hated economics I
was god awful at it ahead I didn’t have
a back-up plan you know I didn’t really
plan on coming here and within a few
weeks changing my entire career my
entire major it wasn’t in the four year
plan but that’s what ended up happening
so I when I want to Kim Hopkins I
actually applied early decision so for
the first time in my life I was really
uncertain about what the next step was
going to be and you know you guys are
all go to Hopkins you know that it seems
like everyone’s got it all figured out
and I honestly thought I was the only
one who didn’t this feeling of Lawson is
sort of festered inside me and it grew I
distinctly remember my very first
birthday at Hopkins my 19th it was in
the fall so I’m still getting to know a
lot of people i was taking this
philosophy course and for a midterm we
had to write this paper and of course
since it was my first paper in college I
did absolutely awfully and I had to
rewrite it and the day I had to rewrite
it on was of course my birthday and I
know many of you know me but for those
who don’t I’m a huge birthday guy and to
me what a birthday is is it’s not really
about the person whose day it is it’s
more about that feeling of togetherness
closeness that you feel when you get all
your friends and all your family in the
same room so I’m sure you can imagine
how disappointed I was when I spent all
day and all night alone and the confines
of my dark crime in my darkroom writing
this absurdly ridiculous paper so I know
this feeling of being socially lost and
alone has nothing really to do with my
academics but the feelings sort of
compounded and they had this additive
effect on me I felt completely buried in
uncertainty and I didn’t know who was
going to pull me out and I really wish
that I could say that this was my
turning point this is where I had my
epiphany and I changed everything around
for the better but that just isn’t true
I actually the feeling of confusion grew
quite a lot so in the next two years I
bounced around from department to
Department taking classes all over the
place so I was a big power mature mother
fat anyhow I mentioned with mother fans
here yeah yeah so I’m a big Ted Mosby
fan so I tried out civil engineering to
see if I could become an architect that
didn’t pan out I wanted to bind a bond
of my roommate Tariq so I tried out
neuroscience that that’s clearly didn’t
work out either and then I I wanted to
see if I could be the next great
philosopher of the 21st century but you
all know how that one turned out
ultimately after floundering and doing
everything I could I finally settled on
public health so the thing with
uncertainty is that it’s it’s a very
normal thing it’s a normal and natural
part of life and it’s going to keep
happening to you again and again and
again and then argue that it’s actually
a good thing because it forces you to
sit down and really think about who you
are and who you want to be and while
it’s great we recognize that it’s a
totally normal part of life how can we
take this experience and kind of create
something tangible out of it basically
what I’m asking is what’s next so a few
weekends ago a couple friends and I were
feeling really rambunctious and
adventurous and so what we decided to do
was drive down to West Virginia and go
spelunking so for those of you don’t
know what’s plunking it it’s not some
weird sex position it’s actually yeah
yeah
King is actually just cave exploration
so when we were inside this cave one of
the things we had to do was pass through
the structure called the keyhole the
keyhole was basically these two boulders
about this far apart and you had this
much with and each of us had to crawl up
and into the keyhole and twist our twist
our way through now of course just my
luck when I try to go through my ribcage
got stuck between the two boulders and I
was stuck so I immediately began
panicking my heart rate shot up it was
hyperventilating I couldn’t breathe I
couldn’t think I remember distinctly
looking at my good friend Kevin and him
nearly shouting at me that I need to
calm down now after a minute or two of
Kevin scolding I was finally able to
settle down get my breathing under
control exhale finally I slip right to
the keel now the problem with this cave
was that there was only one entrance and
one exit so that if I wanted to get out
of the cave what did I have to go
through again the keyhole so this time
when I saw the keel before i was even
inside it I could already feel that
phantom crushing feeling on my chest it
was already panicking just looking at it
even though I knew everything was going
to be totally fine just like it was the
last time I couldn’t help but be
overcome by this feeling of despair but
instead of freaking out further at least
freaking out even more what I did was I
calm myself down started controlling my
breathing and I actually stepped through
the hole in just over a second or two
now throughout our lives whether it be
with our majors our friends our family
relationships our job there are going to
be times where we’re frozen like deer in
the headlights but if we want to
overcome this feeling we just need to
calm down and dive headfirst into this
uncertainty you know when certainty is
actually really ironic because what it
does to us is it freezes us and makes us
feel stuck prevents us from being able
to think from being able to act but the
funny thing about it is that the only
way to get out of that pattern is
actually to get off the couch and go do
something and I know it might be scary
and the entire process while you’re
trying to figure this whole thing out
you’re going to feel like you’re stuck
permanently but I promise you
if you give your genuine best effort in
diving headfirst you’re going to be just
fine now I wish I wish when I wish when
I was bouncing around from Department
the Department trying to find myself
that I knew this piece of advice because
for me taking one class in the
department just wasn’t enough to figure
out that I wanted to do something for
the rest of my life so after taking a
course with dr. Philip leaf and me I was
really into a public health to figure
out if I actually really liked it I
realized I needed to get my boots on the
ground and actually get into the field
so that’s when I decided to join Health
leads and i’ve been working at our
substance abuse center doing case
management ever since because the thing
is that learning in the classroom is
great but if you really want to know if
you’re passionate about something you
got to get your feet wet and get your
hands dirty now just as I faced my fear
of the kegel not once but twice I
challenge you all to face your fear of
uncertainty and if there’s anything I’ve
learned about kind of navigating through
these uncharted waters is that it’s all
about momentum my favorite word momentum
because even when you feel like the roof
is caving in on you and you feel
smothered by this pressure of
uncertainty all you need is one thing
one thing to go right one thing to
change everything one thing to build
your confidence and get the ball rolling
and this whole thing is totally
frightening totally frightening and you
know what that’s the best part about
being in college because whether you
know what are not right now you’re
filled in a room full of people who are
totally scared and the people who
weren’t scared they remember a time
where they were not too long ago that’s
the great part about college now there’s
anything I want you to take away from
this talk it’s this just remember that
no matter who you are right now or who
you want to become this idea of
uncertainty is never going to completely
disappear it’ll continue to rear its
ugly head over and over and over again
it’s not something you just get to wash
your hands away and it goes and it’s
gone forever it’s not how it works
but we can’t let the sphere of the
future stifle us we can’t let this idea
of uncertainty build this persistent
unrest inside us we needed a venture out
and see what Hopkins and our surrounding
communities have in store for us and see
what they have to offer we need to
recognize their fears and reservations
and overcome them because it’s not about
that uncertain sinking feeling you get
in your stomach and it’s not about that
uneasiness you get when you think about
what the future might hold it’s about
what you do next thank you [Applause]