And I am deeply grateful to her not only for the gift of life but also for the gift of faith, which she entrusted to us. I also say thanks to my wife. The first is my wife, a graduate of this august institution, who wandered across that great divide called the Charles River and there found, I hope, a good man. She has been my friend and fellow laborer in the tasks of raising a family, building a church community and making a contribution to this Commonwealth. After almost 26 years of marriage I can never be thankful enough to her and to God for allowing me to be her husband.
Today is rightly a day to celebrate the end of a job well done.
In the midst of the celebrating you may have found it hard to avoid thinking about the future. For you know, as do I, that if present projections are correct, you can look forward in the coming years to the prospect of changing careers as many as three or four times. That seems from one view to be a daunting, perhaps even a frightening prospect. It can be assumed no longer that there will be an entry level position from which one can step on the career ladder and walk up to whatever post one s training and talents dictate. Know, in the workforce of the future technologies, whole industries and the positions that go with them will be fluid and only the adaptable will survive.