NASSAU, The Bahamas – Vice-President of the Senate, Senator the Hon. Barry Griffin appealed to R.M. Bailey Senior High School’s Class of 2022 to be advocates of change and to use their voices to encourage good governance and constant innovation.

Senator Griffin was the guest speaker at the school’s commencement exercise Monday, June 20, at Charles Saunders Auditorium. “Empowered to Make What Seems Impossible – Possible” was the theme for the event.

“What we need now from our leaders is a sense of urgency. There has long been this feeling in The Bahamas, and in particular the upper echelons of our country, that we have comfort and we can manage to navigate the twists and turns that come our way,” said Senator Griffin.

“But what Hurricane Dorian has taught us, what the pandemic has taught us, what the inflation and rising costs of gas, electricity and food has taught us is -- something that those at the fringes of our society have known for far too long -- that comfort we feel will not last for long.”

To make the change, he remarked that the love of an old  “anachronistic” system that no longer serves the nation and its students must be removed.

He appealed for expanded opportunities for all, structural changes in the economy and in politics.

“We must begin to call a spade a spade -- we have a problem of inequality, a problem of equal access to opportunity and a problem of failed politics. And graduates the only way that changes, is by you making your voices heard.”

He offered the following advice to the graduates:

1. The old rules are crumbling and nobody knows what the new rules are. So make up your own rules.
2. Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can.
3. When you take risks, you learn that there will be times when you succeed and there will be times when you fail, both are equally important.
4. Be bold, be courageous, be your best.
5. There is no script. Live your life the way you want.
6. Wherever you go, go with all your heart.
7. If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.
8. Failure is the condiment that gives success flavour.
9. Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.
10.  Go where your heart leads you -- and do everything you desire -- act as if it were impossible for you to fail.

“My advice is to be bold, to be you, to embrace failure, and to live as if everything is possible.

“It is my hope that you run out of here excited, leaning forward into the wind and ready to take the world by storm,” he said.