A final goodbye

To the Penn Class of 2006: I won't be speaking at graduation; I must have been below Jodie Foster on Penn's list. Therefore, I'd like to take today's column -- my final column -- to offer these words of congratulations and farewell.

Five years ago, my high school English teacher told me the secret which got me through college. He said to me, "Danny, there's a way in which you can legitimately plagiarize a third of every paper you write: Use a lot of quotations."

I'm going to give you a few quotations today, and the first one is something then-Provost Robert Barchi said at our Convocation in September 2002. He said, "In four years, you will say that you have learned and grown beyond your wildest expectations."

I consider myself representative of our class not because I am a particularly special Penn student, but because I am a particularly average Penn student. First of all, I'm Chinese. Second of all, I'm Jewish -- really! These two characteristics make me as standard a Quaker as you can find.

But third of all, in my four years here, I've seen and done some incredible things. Barchi was right -- my Penn experience surpassed my wildest dreams.

I held six jobs in five cities, sang in four a cappella concerts, traveled to three Asian countries, received two research grants and played one season of sprint football (in which I caught zero passes). And for Penn, I'm just about par for the course.

How do I know this? Because in all my adventures here at Penn, I've learned that you folks, the Class of 2006, despite your tremendous diversity, have a great deal in common. You're all sharp as nails. You know how to work; you know how to play. And almost every single one of you has done something outrageously cool.

You founded an Internet business; you published your scientific research or you led a team to an Ivy League championship. You won a Rhodes, a Fulbright, a Gates or a Goldwater scholarship or fellowship, and you've traveled from Prague to Perth. Admissions Dean Lee Stetson called you "the most academically talented pool in Penn's history." Surrounded by your radiant peers, it's easy to forget just how awesome each of you is. So let me remind you what the rest of the world already knows about the Penn Class of 2006: You are dynamite.

But remember that there are two sides to the coin of self-knowledge. Benjamin Franklin said, "The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance."

Our great intellectual journey is just getting started, and the most important thing to remember is what we don't know. We gained some knowledge, but we are still developing understanding. We are intelligent, but we are not yet wise. We had some fun, but we are only beginning to learn about joy.

Bruce Lee said that "the duty of a quality human being is the sincere and honest development of one's potential." Today is not the end of that duty, but the beginning; that's why they call it "Commencement" and not "Termination."

The opportunity to explore our potential is a blessing, and it's a blessing that comes with an obligation. In the film Spiderman, Uncle Ben tells Peter Parker that "with great power comes great responsibility." I've been all around China, and I've been all around West Philadelphia, and what I've seen is that the world is full of wonder, love and beauty -- and that it's also full of injustice, pain and suffering. You are in a unique position both to enjoy it and to improve it.

I'm not suggesting that you should ditch your spot at Goldman Sachs or Georgetown Law School and go handcuff yourself to a panda. What matters more than what you do is that you do it right and that you do it for the right reasons. Because, in the words of the Dalai Lama, "the more you are motivated by love, the more fearless and free your actions will be."

And so, as we graduate here in the city of brotherly love, as we celebrate everything we have done and everything we will do, I leave you with the most profoundly genius quotation I've ever heard. It's from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure: "Be excellent to each other. And party on, dudes!"

Daniel Nieh is a senior East Asian Languages and Civilizations major from Portland, Ore. Low End Theory appears on Fridays.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.