The Museum of the Moving Image has a toy on display from the1800s called a Zoetrope, a spinning cylinder with a strip ofdrawings around the center that appear to move when you lookthrough the slots on the side. The secret of the motion is in thespace between the viewing slots – the split seconds with no picturethat allow your mind to process what it just saw, and to meld itwith the next image.

Today has passed in a blur because we haven’t had the peace, theblank screen to process what is happening. However, when we lookback on our lives years from now, today will be one of ourclearest, brightest memories, filed away with the most monumentalmoments of our lives. We’ll have the blank screen of daily life -the life not scrambling to complete English homework, clean out ourdorm rooms, and say goodbye – in order to see what really happenedtoday. The beginning of everything.

I took a class from playwright John Guare and the entire time hespoke about life, the future, where we thought we’d be in fiveyears and why on earth we ever thought we’d get there. He opened myeyes to the fact that as many plans as we make, as many boundariesas we set ourselves, from this day forward we’re throwing ourselvesinto an unknown contained by not even the faintest of outlines. Ourloved ones in the audience already understand, have alreadyexperienced that life ends up like nothing they could have everimagined. And I think that’s a beautiful thing.

Something I do know about our lives, however, is that we willalways create. Even if they don’t go into artistic fields, Kennyand Danielle will always choreograph dance pieces in their heads.Sarah will always repeat actors’ lines in movies the way she wouldhave said them. Cierra will always sing arias in the shower. Aubreywill always doodle cartoons on the corners of her papers – be theysketch book or corporate. Ashlyn will always write – when she runsout of Mony stories she’ll move on to grandmother and mother andlater child and grandchild. Zach will always scour Lady Gaga’sWikipedia page and look good impersonating Liza Minnelli. Ethanwill always admire ridiculously curly hair.

John Guare said that even if a genius like Mozart nevercomposed, we would still be trying to figure out what art is – soour creation of art affects nothing and everything at the sametime. I challenge you, fellow graduates, to continue to search forthe meaning of art, what it means to humanity, and to contribute tothe vast but never overflowing body of work that ushers us closerto the answer.

We set out into the world today with our shoulders burdened bythe expectations of our parents, our new schools, society, and ourown perceptions of what we need to do and to be to succeed. Andwhile I believe we all can achieve anything, I caution each studentto take time to do what inspires you. We are not sentenced to ourlives – let us live like free men, my fellow graduates, not boundby fate but creating it, rejoicing in our ability to make choices,and using those choices to make ourselves successful and, most ofall, happy.

Jules Wood is the daughter of Capt. John Wood and LaurelWood.