Student Speech Delivered at the Washington University Engineering Graduate Student Recognition Ceremony15 May 1997Lorrie Faith Cranor
Faculty, family, friends, and fellow graduates, good evening.
I am honored to addre you tonight.On behalf of the graduating masters and doctoral students of Washington University\'s School of Engineering and Applied Science, I would like to thank all the parents, spouses, families, and friends who encouraged and supported us as we worked towards our graduate degrees.I would especially like to thank my own family, eight members of which are in the audience today.I would also like to thank all of the department secretaries and other engineering school staff members who always seemed to be there when confused graduate students needed help.And finally I would like to thank the Washington University faculty members who served as our instructors, mentors, and friends.
As I think back on the seven-and-a-half years I spent at Washington University, my mind is filled with memories, happy, sad, frustrating, and even humorous.
Tonight I would like to share with you some of the memories that I take with me as I leave Washington University.
I take with me the memory of my office on the fourth floor of Lopata Hallwith no chance to re-enter the debate hall after I left.
I take with me memories of university holidays which never seemed to apply to graduate students.I remember spending many a fall break and president\'s Day holiday with my fellow grad students in all day meetings brought to us by the computer science department.
I take with me memories of exams that seemed designed more to test endurance and perseverance than mastery of the subject matter.I managed to escape taking any claes that featured infamous 24-hour-take-home exams, but remember the suffering of my le fortunate colleagues.And what doctoral student could forget the pain and suffering one must endure to survive the qualifying exams?
I take with me the memory of the seven-minute rule, which always seemed to be an acceptable excuse for being ten minutes late for anything on campus, but which doesn\'t seem to apply anywhere else I go.
I take with me the memory of Friday afternoon ACM happy hours, known not for kegs of beer, but rather bowls of rainbow sherbet punch.Over the several years that I attended these happy hours they enjoyed varying degrees of popularity, often proportional to the quality and quantity of the accompanying refreshmentsHere\'s how it goes:
My uncle ordered popovers
from the restaurant\'s bill of fare.
And when they were served,
he regarded them
with a penetrating stare ...
Then he spoke great Words of Wisdom
as he sat there on that chair:
\"To eat these things,\"
said my uncle,
\"you must excercise great care.
You may swallow down what\'s solid ...
BUT ...
you must spit out the air!\"
And ...
as you partake of the world\'s bill of fare,
that\'s darned good advice to follow.
Do a lot of spitting out the hot air.
And be careful what you swallow.
Thank you.
