The following is the text of the Commencement Address I delivered to the 2001 graduating class of Immaculata High School, my alma mater.   I was deeply honored to have been invited to participate in this ceremony and it was made even more special as it marked the 30th anniversary of my own graduation from IHS.

Some Turning Points In My Life and the Surprising Results
© Winnie Griggs, May 2001

Good evening.

First, let me say how incredibly honored I am to have been invited here to speak to you this evening. But, as excited and honored as I am, I'll let you in on a little secret - I am also EXTREMELY nervous.

So, please forgive me if I stumble and stutter a bit over the next few minutes - I'll try to be brief.

After I accepted the invitation to speak here, I spent a great deal of time trying to decide just what message I could to bring to you. And as I thought about it, I looked back over my own life and tried to identify some of the major turning points I'd encountered and what lessons I could pass on from these. I was surprised by what I discovered.

So indulge me as I share with you a couple of stories from my own life.

The first story hails all the way back to my own senior year in high school, 30 years ago. Early that year, I signed up to take the ACT test, just as I'm sure many of you did. I don't know how it is today, but back then there was a place on the form to list 3 colleges you were interested in. Now, being a rather non-adventurous sort, I had already decided I would attend either LSU-BR or SouthEastern - colleges that were within a couple of hours of home and where quite a few of my friends were going. But it bothered the compulsive direction-follower in me to leave a line blank, so, remembering a vague reference a friend of mine had made to Northwestern, I scribbled NSU down as my third choice and went on with the test. Because I had absolutely no intention of attending NSU, I never gave it another thought. So I was more than a little surprised when I received a letter from Northwestern's registrar's office, thanking me for my interest in their university and informing me my ACT score had put me in the running for a scholarship. Wow - talk about out of the blue opportunities. But the surge I felt at being selected for such an honor was diluted by an abiding sense of terror. I didn't WANT to go to school so far from home. Well, to make a long story short, they eventually DID award me not just any scholarship, but a FULL scholarship. As the oldest of four children at that time, in a middle class, hard working family, it was an offer I couldn't turn down. So, in spite of my stunted sense of adventure, I ended up in a college 300 miles away where I knew absolutely no one, not even the girl assigned to be my roommate.

I won't go into detail about ALL the many ways my life was changed by this experience - how I was forced to come out of my shell and stretch and grow in ways I wouldn't have if I'd settled into a more familiar environment. But I WILL tell you that during my first semester there, I met the wonderful man who four years later would become my husband Just last year, he and I celebrated our silver wedding anniversary and watched the oldest of our four children go off to college herself. So, because of what seemed a trivial, inconsequential act on my part, my whole life was profoundly and fundamentally changed -steered on a new course.

Of course, there will also be major life decisions you'll be faced with - ones you'll immediately recognize as turning points when you reach them, and you'll make these decisions with careful thought as to the consequences they bring. Even so, the choices you make at those times will take you in directions you never imagined.

The second story I want to tell you illustrates just that point. You see, all my life I've enjoyed writing, but I never looked on it as a viable career choice. It was something I did for my own pleasure and edification, much as some of you might enjoy, say, volleyball, or gardening or playing an instrument.

No, my career goals were focused in a completely different direction. I earned my BS degree in Mathematics with a minor in Computer Science, then went to work as a programmer trainee for a large utility company. I've worked for that same company now for going on 26 years - more than half my life. It was a job I loved and I will modestly admit to being good at it. And my efforts were recognized. I steadily worked my way up through the ranks into a management position and at one time was the second highest paid female in the company, second only to one of the executive officers.

Then, about eight years ago, as happened with much of corporate America, there began to be rumblings of consolidations and downsizing. I spent a lot of time agonizing over whether or not I would relocate if offered the opportunity to do so. Knowing that refusing to move would limit my opportunities for advancement, could even force me to take a step or two backwards, I tried to weigh all the pros and cons, prayed over it, discussed it with family and friends. My husband, btw, was extremely supportive and in no way tried to hold me back. But ultimately I decided not to put myself and my family through the upheaval of chasing-the-job moves and chose to stay put. Between that time and now, our company has gone through no less than four major reorganizations, including a buy out, and each time more and more of the management and back office functions were moved from the location where I work to our corporate offices in Dallas and Tulsa and more recently Columbus Ohio. Through it all, I've held firm to my decision, turning down choice promotional offers in the process. And it has affected my career pretty much as I knew it would, but I am at peace with that. However, that's not the point of this story.

You see, that decision also had far-reaching and totally unexpected ramifications. Because of the increasing trend toward centralization and the nature of the work I was assigned in my new positions, I began traveling a great deal, usually taking at least one multi-day, out-of-town business trip per month. This left me with a good deal of unstructured, unencumbered airport and hotel time on my hands - no phone ringing, no meals to cook or chores to tend to, no children or husband to spend 'quality' time with. So I decided to use this time to rediscover the joy I took in writing, and to take it even one step farther - to prove to myself once and for all if I could write a novel length manuscript. Not to sell commercially, mind you - just to see if I could do it. Two and a half years later -- thanks to the extra time to myself that my unique position at work afforded me -- I had a complete manuscript in hand, had joined a local writers organization where I discovered a group of generous and amazing women - women I know will remain lifelong friends, and had found a deeply satisfying outlet for creative talents I never knew I possessed.

In a very real way, you see, my decision to not chase promotion opportunities at my 'day job' led to my new status as a published author.

So, what is the message I want to leave with you today? I suppose it is that Life is a wonderful journey, and that no matter how well you think you have it planned out, you'll discover it is full of surprises, adventures and delights. Every fork in the road, every obstacle you have to overcome, could be the marker to wholly unexpected life-changes.

In closing, I want to quote from a great writer and philosophizer - Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Suess. Here are a few verses from his book entitled Oh the places you'll go! If you haven't yet read the whole book, I highly recommend it.

(due to copyright restrictions, I won't include the passages I read. Please do pick up the book itself sometime and read it if you get the chance - it really speaks to those souls who are embarking on a new phase of their life)

As you move into this next phase of your life, I wish all of you a life full of challenges, and surprises and the joy of discovery.

Thank you.