Albany State University Keynote Commencement Address- May 2023
(Albany, GA)
All Who Wander Are Not Lost
To President Fedrick, University Foundation Chair Hylick, Alumni Association President Thomas, elected officials including my friend Congressman Sanford Bishop and serving with me in the Georgia General Assembly State Senator Freddie Powell Sims, and State Representative Teddy Reese, members of the board of regents, faculty and staff, the family, friends and loved ones gathered in this space – thank you for allowing me the honor of being part of this great celebration. Truly, thank you!
To the incredibly GIFTED GRADUATING GOLDEN RAMS Class of 2023 – congratulations!
It’s been quite a journey, and today is a day that I know many of you couldn’t wait to get to. A day that some of you may have suspected you might never see.
This is a moment to gather and celebrate your hard work, sacrifices and achievements. You have made it (pause) to the top of this mountain! The first generation student who walked an uncharted path, and the second or third generation student who climbed carrying the weight of family expectations. The student who worked full-time while going to school. The student who was raising kids while earning their college degree. Each and every one of you has made it here, made it to today. Which means that ALL of you have someone in your life to thank.
I’m going to ask you in a moment to clap for the mama who always believed in you or the daddy who challenged you or the teacher who helped push you. Give a shout out for all the grownups in your life who supported and stood by you cheering you on all the way to this destination. And I also want you to give a loud round of applause to those haters who doubted you, meant you harm, and tried to throw obstacles in your way. Because this day is your testimony. Graduates, please get up and give them all a standing ovation.
(Pauses)
Now that we’ve given them their due, I’ve got to ask the mamas in this room for a moment of grace, because I have a riddle for you graduates.
What does writing “Yo’ Mama” jokes have to do with politics?
Think about it: What’s a clapback got to do with writing legislation?
While you’re thinking that through, I want to share a story about a woman who I admire, someone who embodies Black excellence. You may know of her too.
She grew up in the city of Los Angeles in the neighborhood of Compton. There was a heavy police presence, and people in her community who faced incarceration. That little girl decided that she wanted to be a lawyer when she grew up. She got a briefcase for her eighth grade graduation gift and told herself, “It’s all happening to me! A couple more steps and it’s all there…”
More strides later, and that young girl, turned young woman, was a college student. By then, she had set her sights on a different profession: broadcast journalism. And she knew that she was on the right track when she got an internship at CBS Evening News. She was assigned to cover what was being called the “trial of the century”– the OJ Simpson murder trial.
If you haven’t heard of the OJ trial, trust me, your parents have! Big news outlets started taking their cues from tabloids. Reporters were trailing home members of the jury and digging through their trash for clues on what the jury was thinking. That young woman took in her assignment and decided: no thank you. Maybe journalism wasn’t what she wanted, but the lesson was there: “there’s value in learning what you don’t want.”
What came next? Years and years of working her way up the ladder in the field of public relations. Success too. She started her own PR agency, got steady work. But in her early thirties, she had an epiphany.
Standing on a movie set in the streets of LA, she realized that she had her own stories about those very same streets, stories about the inner lives of Black men and women that were being left untold. So for the first time, she picked up a camera and began to tell them.
You might think that from there her success was a straight line, pointing ever higher, but it wasn’t. She dug deep into her own bank account to finance one of her early movies. She struggled to find studios who would pay attention to an untested, would-be filmmaker.
BUT she also went on to share with the world those stories of her community- OUR community – stories like 13, an Academy Award-nominated documentary about the prison industrial complex. Stories about civil rights- the movie Selma. Stories of the wrongly accused- When They See Us. She created and produced the TV series Queen Sugar and has racked up industry nominations and awards every step of the way.
If you haven’t guessed it yet, her name is Ava DuVernay, filmmaker extraordinaire.
There’s sooo much that I love about Ava’s career journey, and I’ll tell you why. Young Ava did not have it all figured out. She’s now at the height of her professional mountain but she didn’t take the usual route up. Instead she set off on one career path, pivoted and turned again. She blazed trails by embracing uncertainty and being agile — two of the most powerful skills you can have.
There’s an old saying that not all those who wander are lost. And they’re not. I’m a firm believer that your journey is your own, and that there’s nothing wrong with taking the winding road. You don’t have to know exactly where you’re headed to make strides.
This is what Ava has to say about that:. “Dipping your toe into something is okay! You go on a hike and you explore- doesn’t mean you have to build a house there. You’re just going and walking around. Do that (also) with your dreams.”
I have found that the most interesting people in life are like cats with nine lives. They are dreamers and doers who find courage and strength to get back on their feet, even after life knocks them down. They are people who so many times have made a way, outta NO way.
Navigating without giving up is how you turn setbacks into opportunities for success.
Navigating without giving up is how you win.
Navigating without giving up is how you begin building a life that is truly worthy of all of your hard work.
Remember that riddle I gave you awhile back? The one about yo’mama jokes and what do they have to do with politics?
Well, the answer of course is that to the naked eye they have nothing in common…unless… they have everything to do with the politician standing in front of you today. Back when I was the one graduating from college, politics wasn’t on my radar. Nowhere in my plans. Certainly not the destination I thought I’d reach at this point in my life, BUT HERE I AM.
And I’m grateful for the opportunity to remind you that you too can wander. You can learn from experience what your gifts are! You can learn from experience what you DON’T want to do because that’s a step towards figuring out what you DO want to do.
Allow me to share what life looked like for me, when I was sitting where you are today:
- I went to college knowing that I wanted to be a newscaster. But somewhere in my studies I changed my mind. When I graduated from college, I actually didn’t know what I would do next.
- So the summer AFTER graduation I applied and got accepted to graduate school.
- Then when I graduated, I found myself overeducated and underemployed. Underpaid too. I had earned my MBA and couldn’t find a job.
- But I did know TWO things: I wanted to be in the media business and I wanted to start my career in New York City. I was lucky enough to move in with a friend out on Long Island. I started sending out more job applications than I could count. Still no progress. Did I mention that we were in the middle of a recession too?
- Eventually it was time to move out of my friend’s house. Because we know that even with good friends, you can wear out your welcome. So my choices were to either go back to live with my parents (and let me clear: I do love my parents — in fact my mom is here with me today — but I absolutely did NOT want to move back in with them) OR I had to figure out life on my own. I chose the latter.
- I had heard that the YWCA was a safe place for women. So, at 23, I moved into the YWCA in White Plains, New York and commuted to random temp jobs in New York City. I lived in a room — not an apartment, not a condo, not a house—a small non-descript room at the Y. With my MBA.
- Whatever I thought my life plan was going to be, this was certainly not it! I felt frustrated, with a side order of embarrassed (pause). Though determined.
Let me tell you….it’s tough standing on your own when everyone is questioning your decisions — including yourself.
- A temp job turned into a permanent job in facilities management, or more specifically setting up conference room tables and chairs in whatever shape desired and putting out the food and drinks for every meeting throughout the building. It was this job that allowed me to move into my own apartment in New Jersey a year later and continue to commute into Manhattan
- It was around then, that by chance, I struck up a conversation and then friendship with a comedian-turned accountant. He and a friend were starting a production company. Two Brothers and a White Guy Productions. Did I want to join the team? Sure, why not! And that is how I came to scout talent in comedy clubs every Tuesday through Sunday night – from the time the club opened til they closed – for a year and a half, while still working my day job. Well as time went on, we got a book deal, a book deal to highlight the age old African American comedic tradition known as “snapping” “playing the dozens” or- you guessed it- “yo mama jokes”. No one could have guessed then that writing and editing yo mama jokes would have foreshadowed a life in politics, with all its barbs and verbal sparring!
- The success of that book led to a second book deal. However, the media business was still calling my name. Eventually, I got the opportunity to interview for a job in marketing at the cable station Comedy Central and the gentleman interviewing me said at some point in that meeting, “have you ever thought about sales? I think you’d be really good at that.” I’d been told my whole life I should be a lawyer or go into sales. And I don’t know why but there was something in this perfect stranger saying it to me that I was like, “You know what…yes I should go into sales! I’m going to go for it.”
- I’ll spare you all the details but my “going for it” took me from comedy clubs to sports to dot coms to marriage and motherhood to business, event production, philanthropy to now, serving my district and our state as an elected official, where one of my priorities is Georgia’s HBCUs.
In the words of Drake: “we started from the bottom, now we’re here!”
I took many unexpected jobs that led to chance meetings with people who would change the trajectory of my life. Each experience taught me something valuable. Each experience contributed to who I am today. The truth is, we never know where life will take us.
Class of 2023, you are graduating during a time of endless possibilities for exploration. You have at your fingertips thousands of tools that make launching any career or business idea a real possibility, no matter how difficult.
You’ve already taken several steps toward your dream. Just keep going. Keep learning. Seek out opportunities. Be ready when opportunities find YOU!! Experiment and have fun with your life!
I challenge you to make the most of everything that comes your way. Setbacks are just opportunities for resilience. And resilience is the roadmap to discovering that next act in your journey.
That is what I want to leave you with today: the knowledge that your life’s destiny may not be a straight line, but it will be full of opportunities to learn, grow and reinvent yourself. Be someone who embraces the journey and creates your own singular path to success.
Oh, and one more thing:
As HBCU graduates, and I am the daughter of two first-generation HBCU college grads myself, you have gotten an education at an institution steeped in a rich history of courage, culture and the fortitude of the African-American community. Your time here at Al-benny State University has passed and you are now part of its legacy. More than that, you are the embodiment of A Past to Cherish, A Future to Fulfill.
This gives you an edge and unique perspective in the world.
You have the blood and spirit of ancestors in your veins.
You have the power to shape the world with your vision.
You have the strength to make that vision a reality.
You have the wisdom to overcome adversity and the courage to carve new paths.
Remember this: whatever your next mountain, YOU are a MATCH for it.
(Pause)
The world is WAITING for your one-of-a-kind contributions. Embrace the journey, stay resilient– and always be open to reimagining your destiny.
Congratulations class of 2023 and may God walk with you every step of the way! Thank you!
Sabrina McLaughlin Smith 