Commencement Speech
Ms. Karen P. Hughes
Counselor to the President, The White House
May 10, 2002, 9:00 a.m. Reed Arena

Members of the Board of Regents, Mr. President - that has a familiar ring to it - distinguished alumni, faculty, family, and especially the Class of 2002:

President and Mrs. Bush - or 43 as his Dad calls him - asked me to give you their congratulations - and I know that President 41 and Mrs. Bush congratulate you as well.

What an honor to be part of this special day. I was trying to remember how you must feel today: the excitement, the enthusiasm, the eagerness to get on with your life -- if only the speakers would hurry up -- tempered a little by nostalgia for the friends and routines you will leave behind here at this great university.

And I thought of a moment during the Presidential campaign - we had just left the Republican National Convention, an extravaganza of balloons and speeches and parties, where my boss had been nominated as the Republican candidate for President of the United States.

Like today, the convention was in many ways a culmination of years of hard work -- yet it was also a time of great anticipation - because the most important work was still ahead.

We left the convention and went on a train trip. The contrast was stark, after the chaos and excitement we were chugging slowly across America, seeing the occasional cow. The conductor was very excited to have us on his train, and as we approached a little town in Illinois he came over the loudspeaker and proudly boasted: "10 minutes from normal; we're 10 minutes from normal."

That's the best way I've ever heard to describe the bizarre experience of a presidential Campaign. Everything is a crisis, the media criticizes almost everything you do, you have breakfast, lunch and dinner in three different cities -- if you have them at all. The only thing that gets you through the final months is the absolute certainty that win or lose, no matter what happens, if you just hang on, come election day, it will be OVER - but then of course, it wasn't.

And then came the 36 long days and nights of the Florida recount, and we had a few small jobs like forming a government and moving my family to Washington and just as working at the White House was beginning to feel as normal as working at the White House ever can - came September 11. And as I watched that second plane hit that second tower -a commentator on the local television station said "nothing will ever be normal again."

Graduates, You're getting ready to be ten or twenty or thirty minutes from what has been normal - and a whole lot of life is lived that way. Just when you've become really good at outsmarting the PTTS, it's time to move on.

Today, you cannot possibly imagine all that is ahead of you - at my graduation, I never dreamed that I would one day work at the White House. Yet no matter where you work, no matter how far from normal you seem to be, a few life lessons can guide you at every step along the way. Don't worry they are short, because in the Bush administration, we are compassionate conservatives.

First, build straight fences, which is another way of saying what my Dad always told me: anything worth doing is worth doing right. The straight fence metaphor comes from cowboy poet Red Steagall, describing a young man who takes what he thinks is a glamorous job as a cowboy but is put to work digging postholes for a fence. It's hard, backbreaking work and very demeaning and not what he signed on to do, so as he runs into rocks, he just digs around them. Of course, when they put the posts in, the fence is crooked and the young man gets a scolding from Shorty the foreman, who tells him no matter what fences life puts in front of you, do your best, work hard and try to make it fun. Build a straight fence so someday when you look back: "Then proud and free from guilt, you'll smile and say, 'Boys, that's the fence that me and Shorty built.'"

Another life lesson: choose your bosses carefully. I say that not only because mine went on to become President - I didn't know when I went to work for George W. Bush in 1994 that he would become Governor much less President - I knew he was a good man.

The people you work for and with can either challenge you to your best - or reduce you to your worst. Some bosses pit people against one another; others encourage people to work together as a team. If you work for someone who is honest and thoughtful, who values family', it's much easier to make those traits a part of your life. I have watched President Bush make every kind of decision - including life and death decisions. He has always done so with honor and integrity - and working for him has made me a better person.

Third - and don't get nervous, I've only got five - Build your life on a foundation. Decide what is true and lasting and important to you - and use that to ground your decisions. St. Augustine used a beautiful phrase -- "ordo amorum" the order of the loves - the most important thing you will do in life is choose your loves and order them carefully.

We frequently act - and work - like fame and power and money and all the stuff we collect are our true loves. Yet really, what matters most are faith and the people that we love.

My husband and I had to order our loves recently -we made a difficult decision to leave Washington and move our family home to Texas. I am absolutely confident it's the right thing to do, and I feel blessed to work for a President who is willing to let me continue to serve him - from the Lone Star State.

I was away from the office on the morning of September 11 and they sent a car to bring me back to the White House. I was driving into the city as almost everyone else was leaving. I couldn't have done it without faith - not that God would save me from terrorists or death -- there is 100 percent incontrovertible evidence that all of us are going to die - but faith that a loving God would never put anything before me that I could not with his help handle. For me, faith is a way of measuring how often I fall short - and always a way back to the right track.

Fourth, live in a spirit of joy and thanksgiving. The Proverbs teach "a cheerful heart has a continual feast." (15:15) The president used to kid me the first year we worked together - back when the motorcade was one car and he was sometimes driving it -- I would tell him how much I love spring with the new buds and vibrant colors, and then we got to fall and I love the changing leaves and crisp air and pumpkins on the doorsteps, and Christmas is my favorite, and the President said, "Karen you just love all the seasons." Well, when you love all the seasons, when you live in a spirit of joy and thanksgiving, it's hard to be unhappy. In that spirit I hope you will take time today to thank your parents and families for all they did to help bring you to this day, and I'll thank my parents who are here as well.

I remember visiting ground zero in New York the Friday after September 11 - and it was horrifying. There was quite literally a hole in the heart of Manhattan - and it was so sad to watch rescue workers desperately trying to find survivors as it was less and less likely there would be any. Yet what I remember most was an incredible sense of inspiration because as we left New York that night, thousands of New Yorkers - New Yorkers! - thousands of them were lining the streets holding candles and signs saying God Bless America. If you ever find yourself feeling sorry for yourself (which we all do sometimes) remember how very fortunate we are to live in this land of blessing and opportunity.

Fifth, serve a cause greater than yourself. You've been schooled in that tradition, because it is the tradition of the 12th man, ready to serve when needed. For a lot of us at the White House, that spirit was best demonstrated by the passengers on Flight 93. Told on their cell phones what was happening, they called their loved ones to say goodbye - they said a prayer -and then they said let's roll.

They drove that plane into the ground to save others - maybe those of us at the White House. Most of us will never be tested in that way - but each of us can serve a cause greater than ourselves.

When I first went to work for President Bush, he told me the fundamental reason he was running for office was to help usher in an era of responsibility and service. That's the spirit behind the USA Freedom Corp - which calls on every citizen to give two years or 4000 hours over the course of your lifetime to the service of others. People ask the President all the time how they can help in the war against terrorism -- and he tells them they can help fight evil by doing good: by loving a neighbor - mentoring a child, delivering a meal, by having your act of compassion become part of the gathering momentum of millions of acts of kindness and generosity and service.

Finally graduates, I promised five, but I can't resist one quick final thought, a piece of advice a friend told me his father gave him from his earliest days in T-ball until the day he filled out a job application to come to work at the White House: Swing hard. Don't let fear of failure cause you to hold anything back. Don't be afraid to try something new.

I graduated from college 25 years ago in 1977 I have had so many different jobs that I have never vested in any retirement plan at any place I have ever worked. Your investment advisor may not recommend it - but I wouldn't trade any of it.

And who knows? One day your boss might just let you move home to Texas.

God bless you all - and congratulations class of 2002.