I know that many of you thought that selecting a college, indeed, choosing to come to Northwestern and then choosing a major implied a permanent life track. However, life has many twists and turns, and more surprises are in store for you. All these choices, which university to attend, which school to enter, which specialty to pursue within a school are important. But they do not, or at least should not, determine your future. Decisions can be made but also unmade, crafted, and reshaped.
Paths turn, and real opportunities usually involve the challenge of the unknown.
Sometimes reshaping is hard and other times not so difficult. But, if we remain open to the surprising, there will always be choices. The wonderful thing about learning, acquiring skills, having a broad education is that this gives us the ability to act and to make decisions affirmatively. Learning is good in itself, and it provides us with the intellectual and moral strength to seize the unexpected and to find opportunity where it has been all along, right in front of us. We cannot say, with any confidence, what the future will be.