2022年杜克大学毕业典礼本科生代表演讲
演讲全程▲
Greetings fellow countrymen and women of the Duke nation. My name is Priya Parkash and I am honored to be standing here today as your commencement speaker.
It wasn’t so long ago that I boarded an airplane from my country 12,346 kilometers away with my (exactly) 50 pound suitcase in tow and found myself trotting around East Campus, trying to figure out which one of these Georgian wonders was going to be my new home called Giles. Little did I know, that pretty soon days, months, and years would rush by as we moved from East to West Campus, from Marketplace to the Brodhead Center, from Brodie to Wilson, from quarantine housing to Duke housing and back into quarantine housing, from our tents in K-ville into Cameron Indoor Stadium, to finally find ourselves standing in this field today, ready to walk out the doors of Duke University and into the world with our diplomas in hand.
When I close my eyes and look back on myself four years ago, I see a young woman who was constantly overcome with the need to do more, the overloading, the extracurriculars, the fellowships, the on-campus job, the research in a lab, the going out three-days-a-week. A young woman who always questioned whether she was doing enough to make the most of this life-changing opportunity to attend Duke, whether the individuals whose shoulders she had stood on to get this far // would be proud of her. However, over the years, her need to constantly prove herself took a back seat as she started to appreciate Duke for what it is—the people, the diversity of perspectives, a safe haven where you can speak your truth and live by your values.
She soon came to realize that if Duke were to dig a moat around its borders and fill it with water, it could be its own tiny island-nation like Cuba or Sri Lanka. Well, after all, we are home to several consulates, Students of the Caribbean, Pakistani Students Association, DukeAfrica, Japanese Culture Club; we also have our own version of Christ the Redeemer– the statue of James Buchanan Duke standing atop an octagonal pedestal to grace Abele Quad; an IRS with its surprisingly bubbly fleet of tax collectors – the Duke Alumni Association. We also have the equivalent of the Federal Reserve – DUMAC which manages an endowment larger than the GDP of ⅓ of the countries in the world; our secret passageways – the forbidden Duke tunnels; and a standing army…the Duke Campus Police (thank you for your service).
All Duke citizens also get diplomatic passports, which are like sweet nothings to the ears of US immigration (believe me, I’ve tried and tested). Whenever I would be coming back from Pakistan, the questions would almost always run something like: first name, last name, hmm that doesn’t sound pakistani enough, so how exactly did you concoct this scheme to be born to Pakistani parents, ANNDDD how when and can you guarantee us that you will return to your country after giving us all your family’s money over several years. However, before departing every semester, I would raid the Duke store like our overly enthusiastic Duke moms and dads, and showed up to the airport looking like the Blue Devil (but not the Blue Devil) — yes, we’re talking Duke hat, Duke shirt, Duke shorts, Duke slides, Duke sunglasses… even Duke underwear. As soon as the immigration officers saw that I bled blue, “Oh you’re a Duke national, national security threat, nah, not you, come on in” And all of a sudden, in a jiffy (as I like to put it), the doors to this whole new world of possibilities flung wide open.
That’s when I began to first comprehend and embrace my Duke citizenship. Soon the overtly visible, the concrete institutions melted into the background and the unseen wiring that holds our school together began to scream out loud…Soon, the bunfight of ideas at administrator-led town halls, the painfully long Senate meetings of the Duke Student Government, and the dissenting opinion pieces of the Duke Chronicle, ripe with the potency to make you rethink your beliefs, began to stand out as burning evidence of this Duke nation. I began to see the Duke country in the seething Marketplace debates over brownies, froyo and oily pizza (ting, ting, freshman fifteen) and in the social justice petitions circulating around campus, proof of OUR puffing, panting, and gasping civic communities. I saw it in my overly cluttered inbox, teeming with reminders of cultural showcases, student-led speaker events, and advocacy for any cause you can possibly imagine—a testament to the beating heart of Duke citizens, overflowing with ingenuity, fervor, resolve, and purpose. I saw this nation in the resilience of my fellow students who learned to support each other amidst the instability of the pandemic, in the welcoming responses to my cold emails sent to Duke alums—evidence of the camaraderie and brotherhood running through the veins of Duke citizens.
If I were to close my eyes again and reflect on who I am today, I see a young woman who considers herself part of something bigger, the Duke nation, bound not by race or religion, but by the shared values of respect, trust, and inclusion. A young woman who now has clarity and with it the conviction and originality to not let the noise define her but to wear on her soul all she has learned at Duke and to live a life that is worthy of telling the story that she was meant to tell.
As you look around you, this is not just the story of one Pakistani girl who got lucky and found herself at this institution, both literally and figuratively, but the story of hundreds of my Duke countrymen and women, standing here today. Over the last four years, as the sole of our shoes have collected a world of experiences, we all have become this place in rather perplexing ways, each one of us internalizing pieces of people and history and ideas that have transformed our outlook on the world—stockpiles that I hope will empower us to bring the best of Duke to our next port of call. I believe we are all ready—ready to spur revolutions in our own unique ways and that adventure starts right here, right now, today.
Thank you!!
▲两次演讲对比 (From: Lucas Carter)