Brian Williams Commencement Speech 2012
Our commencement Speaker Dr.Brian Williams!
视频：http://www.tudou.comprogramsviewpXIln4IUhQc
文本：http://www.gwu.edu/brian-williams-commencement-speech-2012
Thank you very much. I want to thank the D.C. Fire Department for the drive-by just as I was named. And you can thank me later.
I note you're all wearing black; because someone knows I am about to discuss my academic past, the dark cloud has arrived. People are enjoying a lovely day from Cabin John to Arlington to the Eastern Shore except for us because I am about to talk about my time at the George Washington University. And now we have air support. So this is going to get interesting.
I did tell them when they called -- it's really okay, I've got this. I told them when they called, I said, you know, I dropped out of GW. It was my third and final attempt at college. And they said, "Oh, no, that's cool. Come on ahead."
And so today I want to share with you a bit of the story of how I came academically to achieve the sum total of 18 college credits. Thank you very much.
There is an atmosphere of academia up on the stage that you can't understand. So excuse me while I accept the congratulations of my fellow academics.
The best news is I don't have a speech. I have just a few thoughts because it's hot, and you're hung over. But enough about your parents. We're also way too close to Congress to give a speech, and we've established you're all than me. So I have just two things to tell you. Number one, how I dropped out of GW, which is kind of a fun story, and number two, a few great things about America. And then you're free to go.
How I dropped out of GW begins with how I got to Washington, and that starts with a guy named Tony LaVeglia. Tony's name you don't have to remember it, but it's immaterial in that we all have a Tony LaVeglia in our lives. In my case he's the guy who calls you, you're a young firefighter on the Jersey shore, you're in your very first year of Brookdale Community College.
I don't like to brag. It's supposed to just take two years, but you're settling in for a good long haul, you're just getting your rhythm going. You've just passed your EMT exam, and you have applied for a civil service job as a dispatcher in Freehold, New Jersey. Again, I'm going to be bragging throughout my remarks today.
Tony calls, he drives a Ford Econoline van which he has filled with cold liquids, and he says come with me this weekend to Washington, D.C. where I'm going to visit my French girlfriend Claire who is a student at Catholic University. Who was I to say no to Tony LaVeglia? So for just a weekend trip, I leave the confines of my home county in New Jersey, and I come down here, where my eyes are opened.
I think they call it Potomac fever. I get here, and I see young people, all of them wearing khakis. And they're wearing blue blazers, and they are scurrying around, and they all seem to have internships, and they're talking about important things, and they know important people, and all I knew was I had to be a part of it.
Tony, by the way, is today a wine distributor, which shows there is justice in life. I would buy wine from him. He has spent years researching his product line.
I come down and I tried to transfer my vast credits from Brookdale to Catholic University. They have run out of dorm space because I am a little late in applying, so they find room for me in the administration building of Trinity College across the street. There are eight of us living on the top floor, eight men, 600 Catholic women. It was fantastic.
And things just start happening to me. One of the young men we lived with in the administration building named Rocco came home one day and said he had to vacate an internship at the White House, was anyone interested. I owned one blue blazer, again not to brag, but I had worked at Sears, and I bought it with my employee discount.