W&M Candlelight 2010 - Mohammad Torabinejad

i'm talking about a place so magical that you get nostalgic for it before you ever leave. a place so magical that you can't help but will memories from their sleep just so you could tuck them back in so you could wake them back up so you could begin to understand what breathing under a blanket is really all about: the ups and the downs. and the dreams that make our hearts beat over and over and over in a language incomprehensible to everyone but you.

i'm talking about dreams so fantastical that they inspire you to wake up. you ever wonder why your dreams are so beautiful? it's because you are so beautiful. all the things you ever experienced in your life, all the things that you will never, ever, ever, ever be able to take away -- all of them coming together in a constellation of infinite grace to remind you of who you once were and who you will be. the unending reminders of who we are that propel us to know where we need to go, that beg us to never forget about the love it takes to live a life.

i'm talking about home, a place ever-changing and never-changing. the people that come and go, from generation to generation, from class to class -- the rings of a bell marking new beginnings in a building as ancient as wisdom and as young as curiosity. bricks in paths laid like moments pieced together to create a map of our history, its geometry resembling the mathematics of this tribe, the very flows of our passions -- the reasons why we move. the steps and breaths we take made up of every unheard thank-you, every unheard i-love-you, and the things we are lucky enough to experience that help to give them meaning.

i'm talking about growth. taking care of stuff that needs to get done, working hard, and knowing that your growth as an individual is the greatest compensation. and craving that so badly that you cannot stop growing because you realize that your life is your greatest work, your greatest legacy. being who you are and never regretting it -- but letting it teach you when need be.

i'm talking about the why's. there is a reason and a season for everything. a reason for struggle, for what would success be without it? a reason for pain, for what would pleasure mean in its absence? a reason for you -- for all the little things that make you the person that you are, all the ways in which every day you've already changed the world.

i'm talking about strength, and how it comes from the heart -- not the hands. the will -- not the want. the lessons we have learned that teach us to never sell ourselves short because of how priceless we are. and the strength to believe that.

i'm also talking about feeling weak -- the knots you get in your stomach, and the way your chest tightens when you find yourself saying goodbye to the people you love -- the way you never really say goodbye because words never really come out with those types of goodbyes. and how those people don't need you to say a word anyway because they understand you in a way you never understood yourself.

there is a persian saying my father once shared with me. it goes, "agi laalaa'i baladi, cheraa khodet nemikhaabi?" translation: if you can sing lullabies so sweetly, then why is it that you yourself don't fall asleep?

translation: that we may all sing, and sleep, and dream, and wake up to live what we love. and that we may all love, appreciate, and understand ourselves enough to know that this, at the very least, is what we deserve.

translation: that is what i'm talking about. and that is what i'm going to be crying about -- and smiling about, but mostly crying about -- for the rest of this weekend. and probably after it, too.

i love y'all so much. thank you.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• william
• mary
• candlelight
• graduation
• 2010
• class of 2010
• WM
• W&M

[Zemness]

Momo, I am in awe. I finally got a chance to hear this (don't know why it took me so long).. you are a talented young man, and I'm proud to have you as a friend. Keep on keeping on my friend, you're wonderful.

[dadyAplaya]

thats my boy. continue inspiring us all to reach the heavens

[dawance88]

Good Job Mo, that was awesome!