 A piece of paper. How much value does it really have? Well the answer depends on how you choose to look at it. Objectively it's just a paper rectangle about 20 centimeters wide and 30 centimeters long. It can be packaged together in a box among countless other papers with yours being indistinguishable from all the others. Before your singular piece of paper reached your hands it was one of many in a factory. Before this it was a tree somewhere none of us will ever visit. Before this it was the seedling that grew into the tree. You can follow its lineage all the way back to the beginnings of the earth. Through its many cyclic recursions of matter. At one stage some of the atoms in your paper may have been stepped on by dinosaur. If it was recycled some of it could have been used by Einstein, Descartes or even Stalin. All of it before life itself was forged in a furnace of a star unknown. Through this you can see its connection to all of the sciences. Physics in the way it was forged long ago in the dynamics of the stars. Chemistry in the reaction from the bleaching in the factories. Biology and botany in how it was once part of a tree. Something that not only helps sustain life but is life itself. But of course as interesting as it may be to look at it from this angle it's not what makes it so valuable to us. The beauty the meaning the affective value that we hold within this piece of paper is due to its symbolism. Firstly everyone graduating here today study different areas of human endeavors. Each pillar that we have chosen to focus on is built upon a rich foundation that has been slowly and carefully constructed over many generations. Countless people have dedicated their entire lives to the difficult and rewarding task of bringing into consciousness what was once previously unknown to the human race. Upon the completion of our degree we have also completed the modern day induction into the lineage that stands behind the knowledge of all those that came before us. We are now tasked with the job and the responsibility to continue the development of the human race in our own individual ways and to accept the call to action. As Isaac Newton said if I've seen further than others it is from standing on the shoulders of giants. So regardless of how you view the importance of your degree take solace in the fact that no matter what it is it is at the very least linked to its own individual thread woven through the tapestry of history through countless generations of people that have come before us. It is the key to go into the chaos and transform it into order. The paper also represents the culmination or the important stepping stone in a long chain of formal education that has its roots right back to when we were five years old. For many of us if not all of us we have spent the largest percentage of our lives under the guidance of this study. It has run parallel to all of the biggest events across our lives the good the bad the horrific and the downright monotonous. It holds the weight of our individual efforts great or small that has spilled throughout the course of our lives. It is something you should be proud of. For those who family know what they are going to do now I say all the power to and follow your flame. For those who are not as sure remember what you hold within your hands. Follow your heart people will notice and opportunities will come to you. As Carl Jung once said no matter how isolated you are and how lonely you feel if you do your work truly and conscientiously unknown friends will come and seek you. I was fortunate enough to be invited to meet the Pope in 2017 at the Vatican. The entire time my mind cycled between the realization that on the one hand this was one of the most powerful men in the world in a position where all of those that came before including himself altered the course of human history and on the other it was just some old man in a robe. The power in everything is firmly rooted in how you perceive it. Like the Pope this paper can be just a bunch of atoms in the shape of a rectangle. Conversely it could hold the key to our future.