Welcome, and congratulations.

I wanted to share with you a game my older sister made up called “The Dictionary Game.” She would select a particularly long or exotic-sounding word from our worn-out ninth-edition Webster dictionary, and I would try to guess the definition as she gave me subtle – and often misleading – hints.

Frankly, I was terrible at it. I don’t think I ever got one right, not without a hint.

A graduation speech is supposed to be about our future, but it’s really difficult to talk about a future none of us have experienced. The only thing we can do with our future is to treat it like a word in the Dictionary Game – we can only guess as to what it will mean. And like that game, we have been given hints about our futures; fundamentally, however, it is up to us to define that future.

Empowerment. Noun, meaning to give power or authority to. See, definition is an empowering concept. It tells us that we have the power to make for ourselves meaning, and that we have the power to create for ourselves the environments in which we will live.

Choice. Noun, meaning actualized free will. Class of 2014, we must make a choice.

We may let money define our lives, or we may define our lives as our service to each other. We may let inaction define our lives, or we may define our lives as action for the causes we believe in. We may let passivity define our lives, or we may fulfill our roles as the catalysts of great social change.

Parents, teachers, friends, and family, you have defined life a certain way, and for that we are incredibly grateful. But we need a personal definition. We must not only go out into the world and live, but we must define the worlds in which we want to live.

Envision: verb, meaning to imagine as a future possibility. We must envision our futures, and then we must ask ourselves what we are willing to do to achieve that vision.

Dispensation. Noun, meaning a special exemption from a requirement. I couldn’t figure out for the life of me what the word “dispensation” meant during one memorable round of the Dictionary Game. I think now, however, dispensation is irrevocably tied to those visions we will work to accomplish. Our generation is empowered. We have a special dispensation to take action, and thus we have a responsibility to do so.

Seniors, our word for this round of the Dictionary Game is “perseverance.” We’re going to have to continue to persevere in our futures. Congratulations, class of 2014.