CCPI Graduation 2026

Congratulations on your graduation–but please understand that the word “graduation” might be a misnomer for what is happening today. Today you finish formal schooling, but you must understand that schooling is the beginning, not the end, of your education.

School may offer you some basic skills, but nowhere near enough formation or information to provide what you need to live out the rest of your life successfully.  You’ll have to pick that up bit by bit as you move through your life.

The real purpose of school, as educators have been reminding us for years, is to learn how to learn. It’s to provide the initial skills along with the impetus (motivation, we might call it) to continue to pick up what we need along the way as we struggle to make sense of our life and the world around us.

Let me use a personal example of what I mean here. The Latin and Greek that I learned in high school may not have been practically useful in the years after graduation, but I may have picked up something useful about learning a language, so that years later, when I needed to learn Spanish and French to pursue my interest in island colonial history, I could do that.

I also studied poetry throughout my high school and college years. Did that make a difference in the years after graduation. In a strange way, maybe it did. After all, we learn to form conclusions from literary evidence–to determine what is the real meaning of the poem from the clues that are buried in the lines. During my years in Micronesia, I had to try to form conclusions from bits of evidence. What does a certain gesture (like a raising of the eyebrows, or a shrug of the shoulders) mean in a different culture?

What’s the game plan for your life?  I don’t mean what kind of a job do you plan to take, but something much more important than that. What sort of a person do you want to be?

That’s the vital question. So let me offer a few strong suggestions of my own here.

1) Be greedy–I mean for information, not for money. Live in a state of constant curiosity. Never stop generating questions. Learn all that you can.  This is huge world we live in and there are great depths to our lives. Never make the mistake of denying yourself the chance to grow–not around the waist, but in the head and heart.

The fountain of knowledge may look too big to drink up, but don’t stop gulping down big swigs. You don’t have to learn everything, but don’t be afraid to swallow as much as you can.  Remember the old days–pre-television and smart phone–with the family sitting on the floor after dinner as it’s getting dark, listening to stories and asking questions of the story-teller.  “How did we come to this island in the first place?  How did we acquire this land?”

People want to understand the world, or at least their own part of the world. For me, other questions arose: “Why does ice form over water when it’s cold? What are dinosaurs and what did they look like?”  (I remember my fascination with old beasts of millions of years ago. I sought stories and books, preferably with pictures–any source that could provide information.)

Later on, other questions popped up: “How did the US start? Why did men used to wear ties at work? Why don’t we ride horses any longer?”

Then, after my introduction to the islands in 1963: “Where did Micronesians come from? Why don’t they have last names like us Americans? How does the clan system work?  Why don’t families today operate the same way they once did?”

Other questions arise for other people. You don’t have to dig into all these questions, but you should have some. Life is fascinating if you don’t sleepwalk through it. Keep your curiosity sharp so that you learn as you live. (School, as I said, isn’t the end of learning–it’s just the beginning!)

2) Travel as far as you can. Don’t feel constricted by your own cultural environment. You’re Chuukese and that will you remain for the rest of your life. Likewise for me, Buffalo, my hometown, will always be a part of my inner make-up. We don’t need to be worried about losing our true identity as we travel on to explore this world of ours.

In fact, more distance helps you appreciate your world all the more. Like those on the spaceship that circled the moon last month, we get a better view of the earth from a distance. It’s the same with us as we move beyond immersion in our own culture and get that view of it from the outside. I’d like to think that my understanding of American society has grown, not shrunk, as I have spent long years in the islands. Even as my appreciation for my identity remains strong, I can view it a bit more objectively now that I have other cultural experiences to compare it with.

So don’t be afraid of losing your soul, your identity, your culture, as you set out to explore.

3) Sharpen your vision.  Remember that vision is as important for you graduates as it was for the navigators who first reached these islands thousands of years ago.  Those navigators who sailed their seagoing outrigger canoes had a map in their head. How else could they have reached their destination after sailing hundreds of miles without the help of signs that state “Ettal, 40 more miles to the southeast?”

A vision, for those early navigators and for ourselves, provides a sense of who we are, where we would like to be, and how to get there. A vision offers us a sense of what life is all about and how it is to be lived. Your years at CCPI should have helped you develop a sense of who you are and how you can contribute to others. Let’s explore that vision a little further.

First, that our true destiny is never to stop trying to enrich the lives of others through what we have received. It is unworthy and self-frustrating to look out only for ourselves, to fill our pockets and let others go off empty-handed. Only in helping our brothers and sisters to get more are we ourselves enriched. This should not just be the words of an old sermon, but a plan for life.

Second, that we can be deeply religious without being feeble-minded. Real faith is not the monopoly of old women, unemployed village dwellers and others whom life may have passed by. It is the pearl of great price for many intelligent, dedicated people as well. We should consider ourselves in that number.

Third, that we all have a vocation to help develop our own part of Micronesia and its people. If that’s so, then the vital question we must ask ourselves is this.  What role can we play to help our people develop as a community, as a state, and as a nation?

During the months ahead you’ll be doing more than celebrating your graduation from CCPI. You will be putting together plans for whatever you will be doing in the next few years, whether it’s work or continuing education.  Fine, do what you must. But please don’t lose sight of the big picture.

You can be an explorer, like the navigators of old, even if you never set foot in a sailing canoe. Your flight to the US, or Guam, or even to other parts of  your state offers you plenty of opportunity to do exploration. In fact, you can stay home for the rest of your life and still be an explorer. Ask questions, probe for a better understanding of what you see around you–your environment, people and plants and everything else.

How else can we ever figure out how we can help our people, sharing what we have with them as we continually grow in our understanding of what they need most. After all, our vision, I would hope, is of ourselves as the genuine servants of our people.

Congratulations to all of you, graduates and guests, and thank you for listening.