UW-L Commencement Address by Lynda Drews

UW-L Commencement Address by Lynda Drews
College of Science and Health

Chancellor, Dean, Faculty, Graduates of 2007, chosen family of graduates, and a special mention and tribute to all who helped pay the bills. I know my husband and I have been doing so the last eight years with our two sons. We are very proud of them, as I know you areof yours.

Driving to La Crosse yesterday, I marveled as the Wisconsin terrain was transformed before my eyes: The flat farmland rising into these magnificent bluffs. It still takes my breath away, even though we come back yearly, for the UW-L Cross-Country Alumni weekend, or the Jim Drews Invitational, named in my husband’s honor. And despite the practice of naming events for the deceased, he’s very much alive. We both loved our college experience on this beautiful campus with its caring professors. Each visit, when I smell Mr. D’s Doughnuts, the Mississippi River, and the aroma of pizza, beer, and popcorn from downtown, my memories resurface.

Back in 1974, I didn’t realize that what I learned at La Crosse would greatly mold and affect the rest of my life. Now I realize those lessons were for keeps. Those lessons still endure in my heart and mind.

It is a great honor for me to be here today. It’s been 33 years since I graduated. I have a collage on my wall of my husband in his spiffy plaid suit, and me in an empire-waisted mini-dress, holding our cap tassels with big grins on our faces. It feels like yesterday. I’m sure we had a speaker, but honestly I can’t remember. Maybe the individual generalized a lot, or I wasn’t listening. Maybe many of you won’t either. But here are five things I wish I’d been told at my commencement.

Lesson #1 – Do what you love. All the boring, repetitive jobs out there are going to be automated by technology or outsourced. The good jobs remaining will be those that demand or encourage some human creative flair, passion, and imagination. These will be jobs that can only be done by people who love what they do. The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has termed these kinds of people as "untouchable."

So what does that mean?

First, they are the people who are really special like Tiger Woods, Bill Gates, or Oprah.

Second, they are people who are really specialized like exercise physiologists, industry consultants, brain surgeons, fashion designers, or molecular biologists.

Third, they are people who can adapt to change.

Graduates, if you love what you do, there is a much better chance you will make yourself special, specialized, or adaptable.

I learned that quite by accident, taking a basic studies course here at UW-L. All my life I wanted to be a kindergarten teacher. But my freshman year, I took Introduction to Computer Science, and everything changed, like it may have for many of you. I switched my sights into this emerging field. It wasn’t until my senior year that it was even designated as a major at the university. I was one of two women within a group of pony-tailed, sock-and-sandals guys. We hung out in the basement of Wing Communication Center with our paper tapes and decks of cards, waiting for computer time. Two of us were the first graduates. A year earlier, there were some landmark consent decrees to eliminate discriminatory recruiting, hiring, and promotion practices against women and minorities. I honestly felt I was at the right place at the right time.

I was offered a technical job at IBM in Rochester, Minnesota. Within three months at my new profession, my husband accepted a teaching position in Green Bay. In order to stay with IBM, I was rehired into the Green Bay Sales and Marketing Office as a systems engineer. Daily I was required to perform calls on clients. I was very shy and after failing in my Sales Call training class, my instructor informed me I was not IBM material. A door was slammed in my face. Someday that door could slam in yours. You must wedge it open, and instead of resigning yourself to defeat, take it as a challenge to change, to focus on becoming special, specialized, or adaptable.

This moves me to Lesson #2 – You can never stop learning. With the help of my manager and mentor, I enrolled in leadership courses and began to conquer my shyness. With this came a quiet self-confidence, not cocky or conceited. The late, tennis great Arthur Ashe said, “One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.” So, graduates, prepare.

In addition to conquering my shyness, I realized technical work friends, not anchored into an industry specialization, were continually at risk of losing their jobs. I immersed myself into the unfamiliar Retail & Distribution industries. At a conference, a few years later, I received an award for selling and implementing the most Industry Application Solutions in the country. In the audience was my training instructor. As I returned to my seat, I couldn’t help but smile at his shocked face.

On average, graduates, you will change jobs at least eight times in your professional life. I changed seven, just within IBM. Each time you may need to get an equivalent of a Master’s degree. Hopefully, you’ve come out of college having learned how to learn. Keep in mind though, in this age of laptops, PDA’s, fancy cell phones, and the Internet, all these tools might make you smarter and extend your reach, but they can’t download your passion, imagination, and creativity—the traits that will make you untouchable. You have to upload them the old fashioned way, with study, travel, reflection, and human interaction.

This moves me into Lesson #3 – Don’t let your real life pass you by. When all is said and done, and you look back on your life, you are not going to wish you had spent more time at work. Take time to enjoy. Because of my job, I frequently flew. Luckily, IBM let me keep my accumulated miles. Yearly, after my two boys reached sixth grade, I let them pick a one-on-one trip with just their mom. I’ll never forget each trip and the close bond I established with each of my sons.

One chose exotic places like Cancun, the Bahamas, Costa Rica, skiing in Oregon, while the other son went to the bathroom-sized PEZ Museum in San Francisco, and to eight different locales where the Dave Mathews Band played. I may be the oldest person in the world that’s been to fifteen DMB concerts. These trips are something I’d never trade for anything I accomplished at work. The lyrics to one of Dave’s songs says:

“Don't burn the day away Come sister, my brother Shake up your bones, shake up your feet I'm saying open up And let the rain come flooding in Wash out this tired notion That the best is yet to come”

You need to walk through life and relish every step. Like Dorothy on the yellow brick road, you’ll see the promise of Oz up ahead, but there are many twists and turns along the way—lots of tin men and green women will stall your progress and cause you pain. You must tread carefully and possess absolute, unbending integrity. This is what will define your character and give you a satisfying journey.

This road doesn’t necessarily have to be filled with job transfers and moves. Advancement in IBM used to mean, I’ve Been Moved. But because of new technology, IBM, like many other companies, allows advancement while you work from home. My last ten years, my team was dispersed throughout the world. Planes, conference calls, video conferencing, instant messaging, and emails now change the way we work and allow each of us to possibly minimize moves.

This leads me to Lesson #4 – Stimulate the spirit with friendship and exercise. Close friendships enrich a life, whether they are work related, or within an organization of varying occupations that shares some common interest. At UW-L, another course I took my senior year was called Diet and Weight Control. I don’t think I did too well staying away from the doughnuts and beer, but I did take up running. I’ve done it ever since and completed eight marathons. My closest friends, from all walks of life, are my running pals. This physical exercise was my savior throughout my career. It reduced stress, made me goal-oriented, and provided a quiet time to analyze problems, think creatively, and let me bounce ideas off of running companions. It provided an immense appreciation for nature, and while listening to music on my Ipod, an inner sense of calm. Running may not be for everyone, but a walk, rollerblading, or a bike ride alone, or with friends, can produce the same results. Dr. Ronald Rook said, “I do not run to add days to my life—I run to add life to my days.” And so can we.

Finally, the Fifth Lesson is to Journal your life. It’s something I wish I had done. Knowing you’re going to have to write something every day sharpens your attention to everything around you. When I made my decision to retire from IBM, after thirty years, at age 51, I returned to a nearly forgotten passion. In college I’d greatly enjoyed a creative writing course. Now, since retirement, I’ve been working on a book called Trial Run, about a specific point in my life, dealing with the death of a dear friend, and the trial of her husband. Attempting to sort through my past, I now realize how much of my life I’ve already forgotten.

In closing, I hope these lessons will aid you in your life journey: Remember, do what your love. Never stop learning. Don’t let your real life pass you by. Stimulate the spirit with friendship and exercise. And journal your life.

The Sages have said, "Make the study of life your main occupation, and your profession secondary." The question is not, "What are you doing for a living?" but rather "What do you do for life?"

Good luck and congratulations, my fellow La Crosse graduates!