Mr. President,
Members of Faculty and Other Distinguished Guests,
And the Graduating Class of 2022:

Good morning!

Having travelled almost 1,000 miles to be here, I am thrilled to join you today in
saying: “I Am True Blue”!

It is such an honour to be with you on this very special day, a day which marks the
end of one chapter for you, and the beginning of another.
Now you may be hoping, or – let’s be honest -- possibly fearing, that I’m going to
stand up here and offer you a lot of advice.
 

Don’t get me wrong – it’s tempting to do so. After all, you’re embarking on your
careers, and I – well, let’s just say it’s been several years since my early 20’s.
However, as the father of six, I’m acutely aware that telling you about the mistakes I
made isn’t going to save you from making your own. And that’s OK, because it’s your
mistakes that will propel you forward, especially the painful ones, when you must get
up off the floor, dust yourself off, dig deep inside and confront what you’re really
made of. In those moments, you will rely on and trust your core values, not advice
from a commencement speaker.

I know you’ve learned already – that the stories of those who came before you can
be critically important in shaping your understanding of the world, and your place in
it, but the work of finding the way forward still belongs to you.
As a 19th-century Danish philosopher observed: "Life can only be understood
backwards, but it must be lived forwards."

In my conversations with some of you, I’ve realized that we have much more in
common at this moment than you might imagine:
Many of you are about to start new jobs – and I just started a new job too, seven or
so months ago, when my party won the general elections in The Bahamas, and I
became the Prime Minister.
And just like you, I am confronting challenges that seem to grow more complex by
the day.

Your world will be shaped by climate change. There will be nowhere to hide – every
state in this great country will feel the impact, one way or another, in the years to
come. That is true in my country, too, where hurricanes made more intense by rising
ocean temperatures have devastated our beautiful islands, leaving tragedy and
destruction in their wake. Maybe previous graduates of your university, or previous
governments in my country, could postpone confronting the scale of the crisis. But
none of us here today have the luxury of pretending this is someone else’s problem
to solve.

We are seeing, too, you and I, that a war half a world away can impact our everyday
lives. Conflict in Eastern Europe means higher prices for all of us, a new shape to
the energy landscape, and an outcome that will affect geopolitics in ways we can
imagine and ways we cannot.

I know many of you studied finance, and media, and technology – these are all fields
experiencing dizzying changes. What you know now may well be out of date in a
few short years. That’s intimidating, yes, but it’s also exciting. It means that the most
valuable knowledge you gained here is the importance of keeping your mind open,
and thinking critically, but none of us can afford to grow complacent, we must keep
learning.

You might know The Bahamas for our beautiful beaches, but financial services have
been a very important industry for us, too. Just last month, we issued a new
government policy for digital assets, and welcomed some of the brightest minds in
crypto to our country, because we’re ready to leverage our experience in the more
traditional world of finance to create a new generation of blockchain entrepreneurs.
I know some of you who may have had a more traditional path in mind when you
started university are now excited about the possibilities in fintech, NFTs, web3 and
DeFi.

Being at the dawn of an exciting new era of innovation means being aware of both
the threats and the possibilities. My country is proceeding with both caution and
enthusiasm, and just like many of you, we’re determined to turn these big changes
into big opportunities.

The goals and aspirations of the citizens of a small country like The Bahamas have
changed dramatically over the years, especially during the past 50 years during
which we have been an independent, sovereign, nation.
 

Take the winner of this year’s President’s Award, Winton Cooper. He’s a senior
majoring in Environmental Sciences, and I understand he has been a respected and
effective student leader during his tenure at MTSU. I hope you don’t mind that I am
delighted to say he is also a Bahamian! In fact, The Bahamas has sent many students to MTSU.
One of our country’s distinguished foreign ambassadors, our Ambassador to
CARICOM, the Caribbean community of nations, is a proud MTSU graduate; Leslia
Miller-Brice ran track here and she sends her love and warmest congratulations to
you all.

Then, of course, there’s Dr. Sidney McPhee. By any account, your President has had
a tremendous impact in shaping this university into the great institution it is today.
I thank him for his generous welcome in inviting me to be a part of this
commencement and salute his great achievements. As I said to him yesterday, even
though he is making a world-changing contribution here, we still regard him as a
member of our Bahamian family.

President McPhee and Ambassador Miller-Brice and Mr. Cooper are some of the
proud faces of the modern Bahamas. But our homeland didn’t always afford such opportunities.
Although I’ve been focused this morning on what we have in common, I should say
we likely grew up quite differently. I grew up barefoot, running around Cat Island, a
small rural island in The Bahamas with a population of a few hundred. I got into a fair
amount of trouble. I’m sure many of you can relate to that.

My grandparents were subsistence farmers, who were never taught to read or write.
My father was a fireman, my mother a domestic worker.
 

When I was a young boy, people of my race, people like me, had no right or ability to
vote for their government, and certainly no right to have a say in how the country
was run.
That I might grow up to become Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of The
Bahamas, was beyond their imagination.
And probably beyond my imagination, too.
But nothing should hold back the size and shape of your dreams.
It is our talent for imagination and creativity that makes us human.
As far as we know, human beings are the only creatures on earth, endowed with the
ability to imagine an alternative reality, and the ability to work together creatively to
make it so.
We can look at an empty space and imagine the house that will one day become our
home.

We can project many years ahead and imagine travelling to other planets.
So let’s decide, you and I, to make the most of the gift of imagination and creativity,
and to never allow the fears or limitations of others to overtake our sense of what is
possible, for ourselves and for our countries.

In our fast-paced world, where a digital distraction is always one tap or click away,
let’s commit to finding our own space and quiet places, to be sure the voice we’re
following is really our own.

You know by now that the world is not always fair, not always just. But you know, too,
that the pursuit of justice, the willingness to get into what John Lewis called “good
trouble”, will attract some of the finest people into your life.
 

We are a part of something bigger than ourselves, to which we make a unique and
irreplaceable contribution.
I have a Christian faith, and so I understand the bigger picture in terms of God and
Creation.
Whatever you believe, holding on to a bigger picture helps to anchor and secure
your sense of purpose.
The job I do, the job of running a country, is currently held by approximately 200
people on the planet.

Many think that those of us who do this kind of job are driven by ruthless ambition.
Unfortunately, that is certainly true of some, but many of my fellow leaders – a great
deal more than the cynics would have one believe -- are driven by a simple belief:
that we can make things better for our people. To paraphrase the Anglican Book of
Common Prayer, we are driven not by the love of power but by the power of love.
Standing here today, looking at your proud parents and thinking about the challenges
you’ll face, this is my ultimate wish for you – that you know the kind of transcendent
love which connects humanity.

The love which will inspire you to do great things, no matter which path you choose.
And I pray that the celebration and optimism of this moment carries you forward for a
long time to come.

Because as you’re living your life forward, making your own mistakes, and charting
your own course, I believe you’ll also be finding new solutions to the world’s most
urgent challenges, and creating new possibilities today’s children can hardly dream
of.

I wish you well!
Thank you