Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Corey Beal | Army Reserve Maj. Gen. Karen LeDoux, commanding general of the 88th Regional Support...... read more read more
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KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Army Reserve Maj. Gen. Karen LeDoux, commanding general of the 88th Regional Support command, gave a commencement address at the Kansas City Kansas Community College, May 21.
More than 2,0000 community members were in attendance in addition to the 360 graduates who walked the stage.
During her speech, Ledoux provided the graduates words of encouragement and advice while sharing her own story of entering the Army and some personal philosophies which have served her well within the Army Reserve and civilian life.
Transcripts from LeDoux’s address follow:
1. Be open to opportunity, be adventurous.
You have worked hard to earn your degree and you probably have a specific dream job that you would like hold. “Go for it” but on your path to earning that job, be open to unexpected opportunities. My life has been full of them. I spent my youth working and dreaming of being a concert violinist. In Jr. High and High School I took lessons at the KC Conservatory for Music, played in KC youth symphony and after High School toured Europe with America’s Youth in Concert before entering CMSU as a music major. I knew what I wanted; I mapped a course and set out to achieve my goals. However, my father was not terribly pleased with my grades in my non-music courses and told me, “I procrastinated too much and needed more discipline.” How many of you have heard this before???
To remedy this he suggested I attend a “no commitment/no contract” Army ROTC summer camp where drill sergeants could whip me into shape and help me get some of that “self-discipline” I so badly needed.
Naively I agreed. What I didn’t know was that I was poorly prepared for what faced me. I was a music major who spent 8-10 hours a day practicing in a room by myself perfecting my craft. To say the least, I was an introvert playing on a team of one with no athletic abilities. I was the kid everyone picked last for dodgeball, baseball and kickball who now had to run, do pushups and work as a member of a team. During that six weeks, I went from running a 16-minute mile to running an 8 minute mile, from doing two pushups to 25 pushups and not only working with a team – but leading a team and found a passion to work with others and help them to believe in themselves, maximize their personal talents and to successfully accomplish seemingly impossible missions.
2. Face your fears.
Maybe you feel fear right now - fear that you won't land a job, fear that you won't find the love of your life, or fear that you will be paying student loans for a while. All very valid fears.
But to understand why fear is good, you have to stop viewing fear as a feeling, emotion or behavioral command, and start looking at it simply as information. Fear of the unknown or fear of failure can be very strong. Fear that shuts down action without any real explanation can be debilitating and become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
But failure is also a great teacher. By trying and failing we learn what works and does not work. Some of the most famous people of our time failed and failed again until they got it right … and even then they still make mistakes. The important thing is to learn from those mistakes to keep moving forward.
Some great examples are Bill Gates whose first business failed; Oprah Winfrey who was abused and grew up in abject poverty; J.K. Rowling who was on public assistance and working as a waitress when she wrote her first “Harry Potter” novel; Jim Carrey and country singer Jewel were both homeless before they rose to stardom; and Steven King’s first novel was rejected 30 times.
Each of them started with disadvantages and handicaps and failed forward to success.
3. Treat others the way you would want to be treated – even if they haven’t earned it.
You cannot always control the people around you, but you can control you. We each have a choice to how we respond to our co-workers, our boss and family members. And you will find a great deal of peace if you simply rise above pettiness and respond in a way that preserves the dignity and respect of those around you.
I have found that a true leader is the one who possess the maturity to treat other people with common decency and respect. Too often, those who are in charge demonstrate their power by making life miserable for their subordinates – just to show they can …. President Truman had it right when he said: “Always be nice to the people who can’t talk back to you.”
So, in a world that seems increasingly snarky and judgmental, be kind. Be kind to your friends, be kind to your family, be kind to yourselves. And remember, just as you are, everyone really is just doing the best they can.
4. Find the joy.
Life goes by in an instant. In this fast-paced, crazy world, slow down enough to appreciate and revel in the many things you will experience — a baby’s smile, the beautiful symmetry of a rose blossom, the embrace of a comforted friend, the spectacular colors of a desert sunset … and the pride of what you have just accomplished.
In her “Short Guide to a Happy Life,” Anna Quindlen wrote: “Life is made up of moments, small pieces of glittering mica in a long stretch of gray cement. It would be wonderful if they came to us unsummoned, but particularly in lives as busy as the ones most of us lead now, that won’t happen. We have to teach ourselves how to make room for them, to love them and to live, really live.”
| Date Taken: | 05.21.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 05.23.2014 14:22 |
| Story ID: | 130967 |
| Location: | KANSAS CITY, KANSAS, US |
| Web Views: | 114 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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