Dear Greg Jefferson,  You are cordially invited to attend the graduating proceedings for the class of 2012. As a special guest of honor, you will be highlighted in a speech by our Suma cum Lauda recipient. This remarkable student is actually graduating 2 years early from his program, and has requested your presence. We respectfully ask that you RSVP to give notice whether or not you will be in attendance.


Dear parents, students, and faculty,
    There are two spheres of influence that affect our lives everyday: the things that happen outside our countries worldwide, on a macro level. Then there's the interactions we have in our immediate lives, the micro level. What a fitting name, micro. It seems the smallest annoyances have a habit of getting in our way. Losing your car keys, having a car window that won't roll up, the list goes on and on. But on some unfortunate days, our difficulties go beyond being just pet peeves and entering the realm of macro events, in our micro world.
    I myself was mugged for the first time in my life shortly before this graduation. My books, backpack, ipod, you name it, were all stolen from me. I was physically assaulted as well, requiring a hospital visit because of a concussion. We all learn the cruel harshness of bitter chance sometimes. I myself was forced to prioritize all that I had lost. At first, the iPod seemed to top the list of value. However, as I soon discovered, losing your wallet to a thief in the night is much worse. It wasn't merely the money I had in the billfold, but rather the identity the person stole from me. I was receiving notices of fraudulent charges on my credit card, which was in my wallet. I found myself scrambling to cancel everything, checking all my info, worrying about losing my identity to a cruel stranger.
    So that was badâ¦but which ultimately proved worse was my loss of knowledge. My text books, an investment for school, were gone. But at the very tip of my predicament, topping all the substantial loss I had gone throughâ¦Was a single flash drive amongst all my things. Everyone knows what a flash drive is, right? I know there's some older folks here who may not be quite up to date (pause for laughter) It's a small plastic device that you can house word documents and data on. On that one little flash drive, was the cumulative efforts for all the papers I had written, my thesis, my final term paper, countless research documents, and business contacts, for lucrative jobsâ¦All were gone.
    As a side-note, let this be a lesson to make multiple copies of your information (pause for laughter) put it someplace safe, lock it up and continually do so. My computer had actually crashed, erasing all that data. I had meant to transfer the lone copy from my flash drive to the computer, but the rigorous, demanding schedule of college ensured I had little time to do so.
    So there I was, back to square one, much like my cumulative achievements I had made in school. I could vaguely remember the summations of some of my papers, but the exact wording escaped me. I began the arduous task of getting photo copies of all my previous submitted papers, to retain my own copiesâ¦Asking for a professor to run off a long list of scans from all of your assignments is not a good way to befriend your teacher. (pause for laughter) Especially during finals week (pause for more laughter) But as for the original content I had on that little plastic drive, that I had not published? It was gone, into oblivion.
    About a week before finals, my mother received a phone call from a man she had never met before. The man owned a small pawn shop on the outskirts of town. In a stunning chain of events, the pawn shop owner had just spoken to a man trying to sell a textbook. Advanced Physics 212 was the title. What's more, the man had discovered a small black flash drive tucked between the pages of the book. This man had cleverly taken the drive without the thief knowing. the store owner took it upon himself to learn who the books really belonged to. I had my contact information stored on the drive, which included my phone number.
    Long story short, the pawn store owner helped the cops arrest the individual through testimony, and evidence on the flashdrive. Mr. Jefferson did so at great personal risk, because the perpetrator of the crime attempted to take his revenge. Mr. Jefferson came out as the better man. The robber is no longer among the living.
Since recovering my lost work, I have gone on to publish several papers, including one from the prestigious National Geographic and Rolling Stone magazines, as well as several others. The coverage of a story of orphans in New York City has led to the funding of several places of refuge for children victims of misfortune. The stories they used were ones taken straight from my recovered drive.
Mr. Jefferson, if you wouldnât mind, please stand up and be recognized for what you have done, and the dangers you overcame.
(Hold for applause, and ovation)

    Going forth, we strive to reach from our tiny Micro world, and combine it with an almost infinitely complex Macro universe. There will be perilous situations for many of us, and our problems can quickly grow from Micro matters, to seemingly unsurmountable obstacles. However, my own faith in the good will of humankind has been renewed. We should all take into account how tiny acts of kindness can reverberate in unseen ways. And even when we are at our lowest, a kind deed is never too much to giveâ¦

Arthur Deareborne
Graduating Suma cum Lauda, full honors
Class of 2012