By Roberto Mendes, W98774

Looking around this room I see so many stories and I want to say that you create greatness just in your presence. Whether it’s the trails and trials of what life ”had been” to the whirlwinds of the “should bes” or the ”what could have beens.”

Just know that they are not only written in mistakes or regrets, but also in the doors of Hope and Faith.

As dreamers we are built to build, to love, to have the courage to fight, have the strength to understand where we stand and what we stand for.

We may lose sight of what’s important at times and we may even fail to remember it’s not chains that keep us oppressed but that it’s our minds that forget we’re free.

The inspiration to find are in the voices of those who feel they don’t have one. The elevation comes when we speak with the voices we find.

Even through every raindrop of pain to every wish that we cast which has yet to be fulfilled resilience is bonded by struggle and as reserved as is the wisdom we hold, to weather us through life’s storms.

No time, no opticals, no chains, no walls, no hate or distance can ever defeat the illuminating light which shines from within us.