User:Missvain/speech 2

I was shocked when they asked me to speak at today's event.

While active in the classroom, I was never one to step out of the shadows on campus.

I'm not active in campus clubs, I don't really have a lot of friends on campus. I chose to come to class and make my life off campus.

Besides, I grew up the type of student who never really got noticed unless it was for stirring things up.

When it finally sunk in that I was going to speak to you all today, I realized that I had made it.

If you would have met me ten years ago, I would have scoffed at the idea of standing here.

Here at the prestigious George Washington University, giving a speech at my master's graduation.

I had other plans.

After I had graduated high school I tried to earn my undergraduate in anthropology from Indiana University. Instead of studying for class, I studied the art of cheap whiskey and beer. I flunked out with a 1.3 GPA.

Like anyone young, bold and rebellious, school was not a priority.

I was lost.

I started working in the cosmetics industry. I eventually became a make-up artist for one of the most popular make-up brands.

While I never was a fashionista, I enjoyed the art form of make up.

I channeled my love for creativity into music by becoming a DJ. I played everything from punk rock to hip hop, spinning at clubs throughout the Midwest. It was a lot of fun. Especially the free drinks and attention.

Then one day it hit me. I was miserable. I was overworked, underpaid, and living a lifestyle that was becoming detrimental to my health.

Around this time, my father had become engaged to an amazing woman. She had received her PhD from the school I had flunked out of and ran her own successful business. We became close, and her independent and intelligent nature would not be lost on me.

I had told her about my problems with work and life. She suggested I start taking part time classes. My confidence was low, but I did it.

I ended up doing surprisingly well. I realized that an A was so much more sweeter than dropping a track at a packed nightclub or showing a woman that make up was the only way to build her self esteem.

After consulting with my father and stepmother I decided to quit my job.

I had decided to pursue a new career, that allowed me to explore creativity in a positive light.

A career that allowed me to move out of the at times shallow fashion industry and smoke filled nightclubs.

I got a job at contemporary art gallery and moved from assistant to gallery director within months.

I fell in love with it and realized that I wanted my new life to celebrate the creativity and stories of others, specifically voices who are under represented in museums.

After four years of hard work, immense stress, and many grey hairs, I graduated with my degree in Native American studies and a minor in museum studies from Indiana University.

I was on a roll and decided to get my masters.

I was honored to be accepted at GWU.

I chose to come the world's great museum city to earn my masters in museum studies.

I was nervous.

I felt like an outsider at times, and still do, but I learned to embrace my bold and unique self to make the most of my experience.

I dove into work and school. I took the tools that I was learning through the museum studies program to discover where I would fit in the world.

Each faculty member provided me with a new tool for my tool belt, and I kept those tools as shiny as possible.

I discovered new ways to channel my curatorial passion for sharing creativity and knowledge in a broader sense. I embraced technology to explore how museums could partner with crowdsourced websites, like Wikipedia, to improve easily accessible online content related to their museum collection.

Many of my fellow students, colleagues, professors, and even my parents scratched their head at my theory and ideas about open sharing and the concept of community as curator. I took their head scratching as a challenge. I proceeded to carve a niche out for myself in the museum world, a niche that has grown into an ever growing network of opportunities.

It was extremely challenging, trying to show the world that what I was doing had meaning and value. I spent countless nights fearing I had made a mistake.

I wondered if I had taken my work too far. Should I have played it safe and sought comfort in traditional curatorial practice? Would I be marketable and taken seriously?

That question has been answered. In fact, it is being answered right now as I stand before you.

As I think about how to frame and where to hang my diploma, I prepare for the next phase of my life. I am moving to San Francisco, a city I have always loved. There, I will serve as a Fellow for the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that supports projects like Wikipedia.

As a fellow at the Foundation, I will work to bring more women into our projects, so we can help share we, women, can share our knowledge on a website where we are only 9 percent of contributors.

I will be close to my parents, two people who have and continue to inspire me.

I think back to my recent past life. I still love music and I can name virtually any eighties song within seconds of hearing it.

I still love beauty and fashion and have a make-up kit many envy.

But now I am in a future that I never thought I would have.

I am a scholar, I am a researcher, I am a curator. I am a passionate and driven graduate of George Washington University.

I did this by embracing who I am. I took the bad with the good and sought input, challenged myself, and challenged others. I found a support system on and off campus to provide me with the guidance and encouragement I needed to feel like I could succeed in a way I never could.

Take this time to celebrate who you are as a scholar and professional. Make the most of your drive and passion.

The older you get, the more embracing of your true self you become. I feel that the past two years has helped me find that self, and that self stands before you now.

I took the boldness and rebellion of my youth and morphed it into a satisfying present and future.

Congratulations to you all for your achievement. As you move onto the next phase of your educational, professional and personal life, I encourage you to do the same.

Embrace your boldness, embrace your rebelliousness and feed your drive and passion for your future with it. For here on out it is only up and up from here.

And if you never considered yourself a rebel, don't worry, there is still time.

Be bold, 2012, be bold.