(AGENPARL) – dom 07 maggio 2023 You are subscribed to Secretary’s Remarks for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available.
05/06/2023 08:23 PM EDT
Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State
Atlanta, Georgia
Georgia Institute of Technology
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Class of 2023, congratulations! You made it. You got out.
(Applause.)
I want to say a special thanks right from the start to Zaria Redhead. Wasn’t she extraordinary? (Applause.)
But each of you – each of you – has survived one of the most rigorous academic programs on the planet. You’ve endured hikes up Freshman Hill. You have powered through all-nighters, with, as I’ve already heard, a little help from Waffle House.
You’ll never again have to wear a rat cap – unless you want to.
Now, as America’s chief diplomat, a key part of my job is trying to resolve the world’s most intractable conflicts in places like Georgia. Yellow Jackets or Bulldogs? Atlanta or Athens?
And look, to be a trusted go-between in conflicts like these, you can’t pick a side, even when – deep down – you know that one is right.
But experienced diplomats know how to send the subtle signals that let people know where they stand.
And so, esteemed graduates, I ask you: What’s the good word?
AUDIENCE: To hell with Georgia.
(Applause.)
SECRETARY BLINKEN: So this morning’s ceremony got Tech legend Harrison Butker, whose field goals have twice won the Lombardi trophy for the Chiefs.
You got stuck with the guy whose last trophy came in youth soccer for “participation.” (Laughter.)
So, I want to make it up to you. That is why I am proud to announce that, today, I am nominating one of Tech’s own – renowned physicist, cellist, social media influencer, George P. Burdell – as America’s next ambassador to France. He’s earned it. (Applause.)
Now, to get down to business. Before we get to where you’re headed, let’s just take a moment to reflect on where you’ve come from, or better said, who you’ve come from. The people, as you heard the president say, who helped get you to this day, who always believed in you, even when you were a ramblin’ wreck; the people who put their heads down so that you could lift yours up: moms and dads, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, grandparents, best friends.
Many of them are here today cheering you on, and those who can’t be, are part of who you are.
This is their day, too. So let’s give them big round of applause. (Applause.)
Class of 2023, I have to tell you I remember almost nothing about what the commencement speaker said at my college graduation. Not because it was a terrible speech – it wasn’t – or because it was a long time ago – it was – but because my mind was elsewhere. And I suspect that may be the case for many, if not most, of you today.
Graduation is one of those moments when your past, your present, your future all seem to be converging at once. You feel, rightly, immensely proud of what you’ve achieved – and, at the same time, maybe a little bit anxious or even outright terrified about what you’ll do next. It’s a time when the question of who you are – and who you’ll become – looms large.
I can tell you from experience: It’s a question you’ll probably be grappling with years to come.
So I thought the most useful thing that I could do today is to share a few tips from my own experience about how to navigate the periods of uncertainty that lie ahead.
First, get comfortable with what you don’t know.
Two decades ago, I was hired as the staff director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. A big part of that job was fielding questions from senators, especially the chairman of the committee – a guy named Joe Biden – like how much aid we’d given a foreign country over the last decade, or how long judges served on their supreme court.
A lot of the time, I didn’t have the answer.
Now, when you get asked a question you don’t know – especially by your boss – it’s easy to feel like everyone will realize you’re an impostor. You might be tempted to wing it – to fake it ‘til you make it.
Don’t do it. Memorize this answer instead: “I don’t know, but I’ll find out.”
I still use this line, including in Cabinet meetings with my boss, who’s now President Biden.
Here’s why: If you give your boss bad information because you’re too embarrassed to admit that you don’t know, you’re on the way to losing their confidence.
It’s getting the right answer that matters, even if it takes some time to find it.
That’s important when you’re the one in charge, too, because acknowledging that there are things that you don’t know signals to your team that they can also be honest with you.
And it’s also okay not to have the answers to the big questions like what you’re going to do with your life. Everyone struggles with those.
Now, you probably wouldn’t know that from people’s Instagram or LinkedIn accounts, where everyone seems to be crushing it. But remember, these are kind of like the real-world versions of George P. Burdell – they’re highlight reels with the toughest parts edited out.
You never know what’s going on in someone else’s life, so err on the side of grace. And don’t compare their outsides to your insides. Focus on your own journey. Be patient with yourself – you’ll get there. You just may just need to wander a little bit first.
Wandering is how Buckminster Fuller – one of our nation’s greatest innovators – found his way.
He was born in 1898#footnote1. He failed out of Harvard – twice. He joined the Navy; he started a family. He had a successful construction company. Then his world unraveled. He lost his three-year-old daughter to a terrible illness; soon after that, he lost his job. Broke, sad, depressed, he considered two paths: either he would take his own life, or he would fully dedicate himself to serving humanity.
Bucky chose life, but he had no idea where to direct his new sense of purpose. He spent two years rigorously observing the world around him, driven by the belief that nature’s patterns would teach him how to use technology to improve people’s lives.
His first discovery was inspired by the triangular structures of spider webs and the branches of trees, which led to his realization that the right combination of tension and compression could make light, flexible structures incredibly strong.
He called the principle “tensegrity,” and designed an entire home based on it, whose lightweight parts could fit into a single shipping container. It was Bucky’s answer to affordable and sustainable housing, and when Fortune Magazine put his prototype on its cover, he received 30,000 unsolicited offers.
Bucky led a wildly prolific life. He earned 25#footnote2 patents in everything from cartography to car design, all focused on serving humanity. To this day, his designs are all around us.
I was in Montreal recently, and we had a town hall at the U.S. pavilion from the 1967 World Expo – a geodesic dome that’s over 20 stories high. Bucky designed it. And the mace that Vice Provost Jacobs carried when leading you out onto the field today – its design is based on Bucky’s principle of tensegrity.
So get comfortable with not having answers. The search for them will lead to your most important discoveries.
Second, know what you do know – the principles that guide you – no matter what changes around you.
Jimmy Carter, of course, spent one of his undergraduate years here at Tech, and he later said that the only way he could “get out” was by getting elected president and then picking up an honorary degree. He had a beautiful saying for our core beliefs, which came from his high school teacher: “We must adjust to changing times and still hold 1895
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