2022 Wichita State University College of Applied Sciences and Technology Commencement Speech.
Thank you, Dr. Utash and WSUTech, for inviting me to speak at one of the country’s most brilliant and pioneering higher-ed institutions. I am humbled by the ask and hope to keep from wholly jacking up the experience for these graduates. I look out at this crowd, and I can’t but be reminded that I am a total nobody. I am not trying to be falsely modest; I understand that I have been invited here to speak today, but I also am aware that most of you and your parents, at some point in the last few seconds, have asked or texted you… “who’s this guy?”
Anyway… I am just a guy here to tell you a story—a true story about sacrifice.
My mother was born on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico fifteen days before the great Kansan; President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the act that created NASA in 1958. She was born into poverty and shared what little she had with many brothers and sisters. She learned to work at a young age helping her grandparents make ends meet. Think about it; my mom was an infant, toddler, and kid while Elvis was becoming a thing.
Let me paint you a picture.
“…your sacrifice and work are the front edge of hope, that you are worth so much more than your achievements today, and your love, intellect, and ability to work hard will bring a much better tomorrow.”
- Luis Rodriguez
Imagine yourselves at eight years old, pooping in an outhouse in a mountain jungle with bugs the size of your hand, washing your hands in a river, and carrying water to the “sink” to do dishes after killing a chicken with your bare hands and occasionally playing with a wooden ball in cup toy.
Ooooph!
Guys, I think my kids, who are so very bright, would melt if I asked them to snap a chicken’s neck. Heck, I am reasonably certain that if I had to snap a chicken’s neck, I would cry through the whole thing.
I’m getting off track here; back to my story.
My mom’s life was hard, and it got harder. Much harder. Even through that, my mom was able to complete 9th Grade before her family needed her, and she went to work as a maid. It was a different time, and where my mom lived, there were zero opportunities, which is such a travesty because my mom is a genius.
She is as much a genius as she is a romantic. Three months after turning sixteen, my mom married and later welcomed her first child, my brother Eddie and three years after that, my brother Joel. My mom continued to work and care for my brothers when one day, her then-husband decided to leave her and take her car that she worked to get. Listen, I wasn’t there, and I am not throwing shade on a man I never met, but this happened, and my mom carried on. My mom got herself a place and continued to work hard when she met my biological father.
Real quick, this story is not about him, but let me just say this, when I had my son Michael, I was asked, “Why didn’t you name him Luis?” given that I was named after my Dad, who was named after his Dad.
I’ll tell you why!!
My grandfather was named Luis, my Dad was named Luis, my aunt was named Luisette, my older cousin was named Luis, my other aunt married a Luis, my 2nd cousins were named Juan Luis, and before I was born they named a poodle Luis. A POODLE.
Listen, guys, pride is a deadly sin, and the pride for the name had to stop at the poodle.
Dang it, I did it again; back to my story. Where was I?
My mother and father married, I became a person, and while I was a baby, my mother completed her GED.
There are some fun details after that, but allow me to fast forward a little bit to when I was about 5. My mother and father had found their way to Wichita from Puerto Rico through New York & New Jersey. They were looking to improve the quality of our lives with a new job opportunity for my Dad. It was then that my biological father left. Again, I was five, and I wasn’t there, but this happened, and my mom had to carry on again. But this time, She was done just carrying on; she would do it by herself and give us all the best shot. The odds probably felt impossible. She had just arrived in Wichita, had no job yet, had no car, and did not speak English.
My mother decided to enroll to learn English and get a technical degree.
At this point, you should know that my mom talks very little about her past. I can’t read her mind, and as private as she is, I can’t help but think that she was afraid of judgment—Afraid of being labeled and what that label would mean not only for her but for us. I think that fear still lives in her today.
All this to say, I only know all of this about her life because I figured out that my mom can’t handle a thimble of alcohol. So one day, I was curious and brave enough to pour her a half glass of boxed wine and ask her these questions. We laughed, and I saw my mother for the first time as more than her role as my mother.
That night she told me that a church member lent her a car to go to classes with, and it was a stick shift.
She didn’t know how to drive stick. She told me she bucked that car all the way to class. (Now she can drive a stick, and taught me to do it).
She told me her first class was Psychology (mind you, she still didn’t know English well), and she decided to sit at the front of the class to improve her odds of following the teacher. She said she nodded through the whole class and even the teacher was like, “great job!” and as soon as she got to the borrowed, stick shift, bucking bronco of a car, she broke down and cried so hard because she did not understand a single word out of that teacher’s mouth. She laughed so hard, telling me that.
Imagine.
My mom finished. She went on to have a long and successful career at Bombardier Aerospace. After raising us alone and watching us all leave the house, she ended up finding the love of her life. They are celebrating 23 years of marriage. My oldest brother directs IT for a Central Christian Church and Academy. My brother Joel is a Bob Dole nominated graduate of the Air Force Academy. He is currently serving as a Lt. Colonel at the Pentagon. When I ask him what he does, he says it’s classified, saying he is in “Acquisitions.” I think he buys toilet paper. He is set to reach full bird Colonel next year.
My mom, everyone…
She sacrificed and did the work. Her career, My brothers and I are the product of that sacrifice, and I suspect that many of you were, like her, done just carrying on. You sacrificed to be here; you faced pandemics; you faced layoffs; you went at it by yourself while holding up friends and families.
I stand here in front of you, most of you with jobs in hand, to tell you this story. To tell you, your sacrifice and work are the front edge of hope, that you are worth so much more than your achievements today, and your love, intellect, and ability to work hard will bring a much better tomorrow.
Thank you, mom. I love you.
Thank you, Dr. Utash. Thank you, WSUTech, and congratulations, class of 2022!