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Here’s the text of a talk I gave today at SFSU’s Department of Counseling Graduation. Enjoy. - C

SFSU Recognition Ceremony

 
Good afternoon esteemed Department of Counseling Faculty, Graduates, and friends and family. It’s certainly nice to be back on old stomping grounds at SF State, and I’m incredibly humbled to be here today to share some thoughts on graduation and commencement. It’s been an eventful 13 years since I’ve been in those seats, and I assure you there are jobs out there. Hopefully you paid some attention to Counseling 720, the Career Counseling course, if not, Career Counseling students, here are your first clients.  Like I said, there are jobs out there.
 
In the last 13 years I’ve come to look at my time at SF State with gratitude because of the training I’ve received and the relationships I’ve developed with classmates and professors alike. I’ve had wonderful professors that I’ve been able to connect with over the years at conferences and at supervisor meetings, and I’ve been consistently in awe of the hard work they do both inside and outside of the classroom. You are leaving SF State with a world class education.
 
It is this education that has inspired me to give back as a supervisor for a few interns over the years. Let’s hear it for the interns - the 12-16 hours a week you give us are heaven sent - and for MFTs the 1500 more hours you have left will not feel like heaven just yet, but when you’re done, it will be so awesome.
 
As counseling students, you have chosen to enter a field that needs you. In a world of stress and strife, in economic challenges and unsureness, this world welcomes you with open arms. To be sure, you have entered a world that doesn’t have huge financial gains, but the rewards are many. College Counselors, my own people, you will help students first in their family to complete their education at a post-secondary institution. Rehab counselors, many of our wounded soldiers returning from Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom will need you to guide them back as they transition home. School Counselors assist daily with the overcrowded classrooms and neediest of the needy children in our schools. You, each and every one of you, are wanted, you are needed, and you are valued.
 
You have chosen this path not for the money - we already agreed on that. The profession isn’t necessarily about the glory either, so why counseling? I can speak for myself, and perhaps a few more of you when I say I chose it because of The Fire.
 
In each one of you, and I extend that to you faculty and our friends and family here, burns a fire. And in this fire is something that gets you out of bed in the morning. In this fire burns something that gets you going when the going gets tough. The fire burns in your blood, it tingles your fingertips. It is The Purpose. It is The Calling. It is without mincing words who you are at the very fiber of your being. Your mission statement, your vision and values all rolled up in one. It could be your family, your kids, your art, your music, your profession, or the blue sky, but it is a mighty fire inside you that burns.

And like all mighty fires that burn it can get extinguished.

I see it most in new graduates who are struggling to find a job. There’s a drop of water on the fire. I see it in the counselor whose client is back to her old ways and actively engaged in self-defeating behavior. A drop of water. I see it in a therapist whose client is non-compliant but back again, this time ready to try again. These drops of water can become buckets and torrents, causing the best and the brightest to question their career choice and path, dreading going to work or worse yet dreading their clients.

This work is not going to be easy. But what makes this work valuable and meaningful is the meaning we make from our work. So I ask, “What does this work mean for you?”

In my line of work, academic advising and support, I deal with students who run the gamut - high achieving students with solid 4.0 GPAs and those with 0.95s. First in their family to go to college. Parents are cardiologists. Foster kids. English language learners. Students with disabilities. Undocumented students. Each day is never the same, and for that I am certainly grateful. The meaning I take from it is simple: I am here to help transition students from first year to graduation. What that looks like is different for each of these students, but I am going to do my best to help them through.

For some students it’s a simple question. “What do I need to take in order to graduate?” For others, it might be, “Why do I keep failing?” No one question is better than another, but the barrage can be constant, and it’s easy to lose sight of why each question is important to a particular student. Many of us see client after client, and as social programs are getting the axe, the lines continue to grow out our door. Our clients come to us because they need our help. Our clients come to us because we might be the only stable person they have in their lives. Our clients come to us because we are here. And that line out the door can be the wind that blows out The Fire.

When that Fire starts to flicker we need to figure out how to Stoke The Fire. How do you get re-energized after a long day of the same question or interaction, over and over again? Never lose sight of who and what you are, counselor. For many of our clients, you represent hope. You represent a way out. You represent the only person who will hear them out. You are a valuable resource to our community, to our families, and to our children. And you must bear this role with huge responsibility. To enter the workplace with less than the requisite heart and presence risks irreparable damage to your relationship and the work that you have completed together. Never lose sight of that.

I am fortunate in that I’m able to work with first year students - and I’m also literally one of the last people they will see before they receive their diploma from USF. It doesn’t sound glamorous to be the person who fixes their tassle and hood before they process across the stage during graduation, but I do that. Since Thursday of this week, I will have fixed 1340 tassles and hoods, the last of which I saw graduate not two hours ago. While not a huge task, it helps ground me and remind me that this is my goal - to see them graduate. To see them, after failures, struggles, challenges, and successes, finally graduate is wonderful and validating. There is no happier day. On these days I meet students’ families, children, and significant others, many of whom I haven’t seen since they dropped of their students on campus, but on those days are hugs like we’re old friends, high fives like we’re teammates, and tears of joy like we’re familia. I’m exhausted, but I’m ready for the next incoming class on days like this.

Stoking The Fire is important, but you must also give back. I had great internship supervisors who mentored me through my education - for them I gave back and mentored interns from this program. I had wonderful professors - for them I gave back by teaching Theoretical Foundations for a semester here at SF State.  I’m here largely in part to students who came to interview me for a class, so thanks Kim, Kali and Alex. Giving back creates a virtuous cycle - and it is my hope that my giving back inspires you to the do the same.

The Fire. Stoking The Fire. Giving Back. These things, in this uncertain world with its plummeting dollar values, rapidly changing economies, and uncertain job futures, don’t cost anything. Reflection, to quote a popular ad campaign, is priceless. As you go into the world beyond Holloway Avenue, take the time to do the work behind the work to keep you refreshed, recharged, and renewed. Get certified. Get that doctorate. Get ready.

Because on Monday, there will be clients to see, meetings to attend, and we need you at your best. Graduates, may your Fire be the catalyst for change, insight and growth of your clients, but I challenge you to ensure that your Fire becomes the catalyst for your own change, insight and growth. And when the phone rings, and it’s an SF State student calling, asking you for a few minutes to discuss the field of counseling, pick up the phone.

Congratulations and best of luck. I’m so proud of you. Now go and set the world on fire.