INEL 4215 – Computer
Architecture and Organization
Department of
Electrical & Computer Engineering
Spring 2004
What advice can I give students on the
last day of classes? Maybe the best
advice is to read the following commencement (graduación)
address. Good luck in your finals and everything else. It has been my pleasure
to have you as my students. Remember: “YO VOY A USTEDES”.
--Nayda
G. Santiago
Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97:
Wear sunscreen.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen
would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by
scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my
own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind.
You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded.
But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in
a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous
you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.
Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that
worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing
bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never
crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at
Do one thing every day that scares you.
Sing.
Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up
with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss.
Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead,
sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.
Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you
succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank
statements.
Stretch.
Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with
your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they
wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know
still don't.
Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss
them when they're gone.
Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have
children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40,
maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever
you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your
choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.
Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid
of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll
ever own.
Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living
room.
Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.
Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel
ugly.
Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be
gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past
and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few
you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography
and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew
you when you were young.
Live in
Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise.
Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll
fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were
noble, and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.
Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a
trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either
one might run out.
Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40
it will look 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those
who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing
the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and
recycling it for more than it's worth.
But trust me on the sunscreen.
MARY THERESA SCHMICH