On behalf of the faculty of College of the Atlantic, I want to call our collective attention to a profound and temporal truth. The faculty members we have been remembering - and the students who have received awards in their names - link past, present, and future. We are honoring four faculty of this institution, Dan Kane, Dick Davis, Bill Drury and Craig Greene, who passed away while doing what they loved, teaching College of the Atlantic students. By this we honor students as well. Remembering the faculty members is a way of re-incarnating their most precious gift, the gift of an inquiring, generous and compassionate mind. Current faculty have named students to receive awards in our former colleagues' memories as a way of recognizing the past of the faculty members' contributions, the present of the students' achievements, and the future wisdom open to us all. When we link past and future in this way, we create anew the profound commitment that education must be for all who teach and all who learn.

Sometimes we forget that our lives are gifts - gifts that we receive, and gifts that we share with others. The gift of passionate curiosity, the gift of unfailing hope for the future, and the often unrecognized gift of committed endeavor, shine through this entire class of graduating seniors. Every student who will walk across that stage tomorrow to receive the Bachelor of Arts in Human Ecology has persevered through challenges and tested their willingness to work harder than they could have imagined a few years ago. Every soon-to-be-graduate has stretched beyond the possible on countless occasions, while daring to nourish their own hope for a better, safer, more just, peaceful, and equitable world. Dancers, novelists, musicians, policy-makers, teachers, artists, naturalists, researchers, budding scholars, entrepreneurs, and inventors of our collective future, they have recognized the courage, beauty, hope, and knowledge that lie in wait for those who dare to see what is harsh as well as what is hopeful, what is true as well as what we need to make real. We, the faculty, believe in them - in you.

If you will bear with me for a moment, I would like to specifically address the seniors.

Each of you has probably, perhaps late one night in Take-A-Break, cursed the demands and expectations of your present teachers and mentors. I am certain we have at times driven you crazy with our belief not in what you have already done - your past - but in what you can do - your future. That belief has led us to push you ever farther, often when you just wanted to rest. It has driven us to encourage you when you thought you were lost, to challenge you to find an internship that would test your mind and your strength, to walk with you and also to leave you alone - with everything ranging from the Human Ecology Essay to your senior project. We have stood behind the scenes with scores at your recitals, offered our voices to be taped for your exhibits, lent a hand as you struggled with data, listened to you read. We have wondered with you about possible futures, graduate school programs, and business opportunities. We've encouraged your dreams but also challenged you to get real. We are probably quite an annoyance, reminding you of the rules - of what you must do to graduate - as well as of your capacities. And that's perfectly fine. Your parents, grandparents, friends, and family have all taken the risks of your disapproval upon themselves to love you into your own future. We have simply joined them. To celebrate the connections of past, present and future that we all make, and that your families and friends make by being here, we the faculty, want to celebrate our own extravagant pride and joy in your accomplishments with a simple gift. Like the awards in honor of colleagues no longer with us, the gifts we present to you today connect the past - your arrival at College of the Atlantic - with the present of your accomplishments and the future of our faith in you.

To your advisors, faculty and staff alike, you - the graduates of 2007 - represent a unique kind of hope. From our very slight advantage of age and experience, from our care and compassion, from our impossible, but we hope reasonable standards and demands, we offer each of you an individualized gift. The books we have inscribed for you contain a chance to keep something of what the past of your education has meant alive in your dreams. We hope you will create your own journey in these books, using them to connect with the future that is now unfolding. You may decide to use your book to record that journey, as a photograph album for future gatherings with alums, or to write your novel. You may invite others to add their words of friendship, encouragement, congratulations, and vision to the books we have just begun to inscribe. Regardless of how you use these books, each of which recognizes a unique individuality, we want you to remember that as our parting gift to you, these words and blank pages are for your journey, for your going forward.

As I conclude, my faculty colleagues and I are going to find each of you to present you your own award.

Thank you for letting us be a part of your life, your learning, your growth from past to present to future, and most of all your hope.