Jamie Lunsford, a 2003 graduate of Gallatin R-5 High School, gave the commencement speech for the College of Business at the University of Missouri at Columbia on Dec. 14, 2007.
This website brought to you in part by the following sponsor:
Jamie is the daughter of Dianna and Alan Lunsford of Gallatin. She is the granddaughter of Randall and Barb Axon of Albany, Leroy and Lillian Luns- ford of Bethany, and Doug and Suzann Axon of Parkville, and the niece of Dawn McNeely of Kemose, WI.
All were in attendance during Jamie’s graduation ceremony as well as other friends. A complete reprint of Jamie’s graduation address appears on page 3.
by Jamie Lunsford
Good evening family and friends, distinguished faculty, and 2007 graduates. It truly is an honor for me to be here as we reflect upon what is said to be “the best time of our life.”
Fellow graduates, think about this for a moment: What if each day during college you had been given a checking account with $86,400. The only catch: You had to spend the entire amount by the end of every day.
Just consider how great college would have been if everyday we had $86,400. Student loans wouldn’t exist, we would have always had plenty of quarters to pay for parking; and our meals would’ve been more than just Ramen Noodles and Easy Mac. And parents: you would have loved this as well. You wouldn’t have been asked for weekly spending money, nor would you have had to pay for our parking tickets, rent, utilities, groceries, OR student charge. However, I think I can speak on behalf of most graduates when I say that we would have still really appreciated the free laundry service and homemade cookies.
This may seem impossible to comprehend that each of us could’ve had such an account, but we did! …and this account existed in a bank called Time. Every morning each of us was credited with 86,400 seconds, and every night, these seconds were diminished to zero. We could not borrow from yesterday, nor save for tomorrow. We could only invest our time wisely each day in hopes of earning a high return on our college investment for the future, all while making some really great memories from our short-term investment. Even though each of us was given the same amount of time to invest, just like with our money, we all spent our funds in various ways.
Some of you effectively used your college time and received an early diploma in return, while others of us, myself included, tried to buy more time to extend our college experience by a semester, or even a year. But, no matter how long it has taken us to graduate, all of us can expect a long-term “above normal” rate of return from the wealth of knowledge we’ve gained while at MU. And as for the short term, we’ve already experienced that same rate of return from the many memories we’ve made. Take just this past semester for instance, as we watched as the No. 1 Tigers unleashed their first 11 win season since 1960, knocking off the Kansas Jayhawks on their way to a Big 12 championship. And speaking of making Mizzou history, today, we mark the first class ever to graduate from the Robert J. Trulaske Sr. College of Business.
If you think about it, this whole “time is money” concept is nothing new. In high school our time spending was controlled by curfews and eight hours of class. As college freshmen, we found that we actually had NO spending limits with our time. There were no adults around to monitor our spending, and most of us probably didn’t invest our time very wisely. However, as we got older we realized just how valuable our college days were, maybe because they were getting shorter. We really did learn how to MANAGE our time just as we managed our money. With both, we carefully spent all that we had on business organizations, fraternities, sororities, friends, tailgates, community service projects, Harpo’s, three day weekends, interviews and studying for finals. And when we were running low…well, with money we could try to sweet talk our parents for more, but with time we’d just end up compromising our sleep instead. We spent many late nights either out with friends, or memorizing test content, that, most likely we were going to forget right after the exam. Yet, even though we’d find ourselves nodding off in class and sleeping till past noon, it really was all those sleepless nights with pokey sticks, 2 a.m. study breaks, and endless pomping that were worth more than any extra time or sleep we could have ever bought.
As much as we’d all like to keep buying more time in college, today, we must withdraw our short term investment and face the “real world” with our daily 86,400 seconds (That once again are controlled by curfews and eight hours of work).
Fellow graduates, as you embark upon the next chapter in your life; as you look around and see that we are surrounded by future managers, captains of industry, and CEO’s, think about this for a moment: What if everyday, you were given 86,400 seconds to spend. How will you allocate your time? Will you remember to maintain your investment at Mizzou and give back as alumni? Will you transfer funds by trying to go back to college, or will you wisely invest time reminiscing with old friends and making new memories, more priceless moments you can treasure for a lifetime? Yesterday is a canceled check, tomorrow is a promissory note, today is the only cash, the only seconds, you have…. I hope you invest yours wisely.