Graduation Speech
Good afternoon, dear faculty, staff, family, friends, and graduates.
It is an honor to be speaking with you here today. Graduates of the class
of 2025, CONGRATULATIONS!!!
While I was very honored to be invited to be the graduate speaker
at the 2025 Bina Bangsa University graduation ceremony, I admit that
writing this speech was even harder than writing my thesis. And believe
me, I would have never imagined that there would be anything harder
than that. The hard part about it is that I was told that my graduation
speech had to make you laugh first, then cry, and then inspire you. And
it had to be short… So as you can see, that’s not a very easy task to
accomplish. But I’ll try.
As I was thinking about this speech and reflecting on my
experiences here at the Departement of Economic and Bussines as a graduate
student, I came up with a perfect analogy for my and my fellow
classmates’ undergraduate school experience. The analogy is
that undergrad school is like studying abroad, isn’t it?
Let me tell you more about this analogy. When we were in the
process of applying for undergraduate school, it was like planning to study
abroad. Those who have studied abroad will remember feeling very
excited about the upcoming adventure and giving little thought to the
possibility of culture shock! I could probably guess that quite a few of us
in this audience who have studied abroad, prior to our travel were
thinking that we knew exactly what we were getting ourselves into…
And I could probably guess that we were not necessarily right about
that… Well, that was pretty much the same situation with undergraduate
school for me and for some of my classmates. We did experience culture
shock!
We all know that language can create extraordinary challenges for those
abroad. In undergraduate school, we also experienced language barriers and
especially local languages. I remember with our first meeting in economy
class, and we try to get to know each other.
Let me tell you more about this analogy. When we found out there
were several students from various regions in Indonesia. In a relaxed
situation we ask each other regional language. I come from the city of
Tegal, do you know the language of the city of Tegal? yeah "Ngapak".
Most of my classmates are curious about my language because the
majority of they are local residents who speak "Jaseng" fluently, at the
beginning of college I really didn't understand their language. But after
interacting for a long time, little by little I understand the regional language
of Jawa Serang.
The language barrier is not the only challenge we are facing when
studying abroad. So it is not the only challenge in undergraduate school either.
Going straight from my high school experience into my undergraduate
career proved to be challenging for me in many ways. It was very
challenging to balance school, my work as a an employee fellow
and my social life, all while trying to get some much needed sleep.
I remember I never even had time to attend the Time Management
workshops offered through the school.
While undergraduate school challenged us in so many different ways, it
is those challenging moments that help us grow tremendously. As
someone who is very interested in continuing their studies abroad, I often
hear how study
abroad changed their students and made them feel empowered, like they
can do anything. .. Just like those students who study abroad, those
challenges that we had to go through in undergraduate school are what value
most at the end, as they change us completely and we have become more
independent, open minded, and self-reliant individuals.
I would like to extend the metaphor in another way. In my mind,
getting our diplomas today is like buying a plane ticket to study abroad.
It is very exciting, but what we get out of our experience abroad will
depend on how we deal with many challenges and with culture shock.
Yes, moving from academia to the “real world” will involve some
culture shock, for sure! Those who are patient, open minded, and who
are willing to work hard to adjust to the new environment will succeed.
Buying a ticket to a foreign country does not automatically guarantee a
successful experience, so I hope that you will all go forward into your
future recognizing the challenges you may experience and being ready
to face them. As many of us who traveled to at least one country can
attest, it’s very easy to get the travel bug. I hope you will also get the
learning bug and even after your graduation today you will pursue
different avenues of learning. Congratulations again to you, graduates!
And thank you very much dear faculty, staff, family, friends, and fellow
classmates for your continued support!
