Opening Exercises AddressPresident Shirley M. Tilghman1 As University president, I have the good fortune to serve as an oratorical bookend to your time at Princeton, bidding you welcome today and having the last word of farewell at Commencement. I happen to love Opening Exercisesthe chapel choirs beautiful voices raised in song, the African drums, the colorful flying banners reminiscent of Marc Chagall, one of my favorite artists. And, of course, the procession in academic regalia, for Princetonians love parades, particularly ones that are awash in orange and black. You will participate in your first Princeton Pre-rade in just a few minutes, in which the sophomore, junior and senior classes will boisterously welcome you to Princeton. And in four very short years, you will run onto Poe Field behind the banner of the class of 2013 in what I hope will be the first of dozens of P-rades at Reunions.2 But what I love most about Opening Exercises is the hope for the future that overcomes me as I look into your faces while walking up and down the aisle, trying to elicit smiles. (So when I go back down, smile!) I see future scholars, community organizers, entrepreneurs, artists, public servants, musicians, bankers, teachers, athletes, doctors, scientists, judges, CEOs, inventorsI see leaders in every walk of life. For that is the purpose of a Princeton educationto prepare very talented young men and women like you to make a positive difference in the world by helping you develop the qualities that are required of leaders: a devotion to critical thinking over ideology; the self-confidence that it takes to change your mind in the face of new evidence; the capacity to speak the truth as you understand it; a deep respect for learning as opposed to uninformed opinion; and the strength of character that grows out of humility and compassion for your fellow human beings.3 Having told you what I love about Opening Exercises, I will now confess to you what I find taxing. Each year I must find new ways to exhort students to make the most of the next four years. Because these addresses are published in the Princeton Alumni Weekly, I must come up with something new every falla challenge that increases in magnitude with each passing year. In 2001 I urged the members of the class of 2005 to view their education as a journey of discovery; the members of the class of 2007 were asked to embrace the meaning of our informal motto, Princeton in the nations service and in the service of all nations and to use their educations in the service of others; the members of the class of 2011 were told to be open to surprises and prepared to change their minds in the course of their studies; and the message delivered last year to the class of 2012 was intended to be timelyI pointed out that education in the liberal arts was founded in ancient Greece as the best way to prepare citizens to participate fully in their democracy, so dont forget to vote.4 This year, as I thought about what new message I might deliver to your class, I decided to take my inspiration from David Letterman and offer up not one but ten things I hope you do before you march proudly out the FitzRandolph Gates. So here they are, in no particular order, and minus the drum roll:5 No. 10: Call, e-mail, text or IM home, but not too often. As hard as it is for parents to accept, we did not admit them to Princeton when we admitted you. The next four years will mark the final stage in your transition from adolescence to adulthood, and now is the time for you to strike out on your own and make your own decisions. You will surely make mistakeseveryone doesbut you will also learn from them. 6 No. 9: When you are feeling overwhelmed by Princeton, as every single student surely does at some point, say the following things to yourselves: “I was chosen from among 22,000 applicants by an experienced group of admission officers, who are not known for making mistakes. No, I didnt win the math Olympiad at the age of 10, and I dont speak 14 languages. I couldnt dunk a basketball if my life depended on it, and I get stage fright just thinking about stepping in front of an audience. But I bring to this University a unique set of intellectual and personal qualities that my classmates will learn from and that my professors, coaches, conductors, directors, advisers and mentors will help me strengthen. I have earned the right to be here.” 7 No. 8: Approach Princeton with gusto, but not abandon. You will face a dizzying array of choices in the next few monthsthe courses you will take, the student groups you will join, the friends you will cultivate. Keep in mind that less is often more. When we recommend that you begin by taking four courses a semester and not five or six or seven as sometimes you want to do, we do so because we believe that you will gain more from delving deeply into four subjects than by skimming the surface of a larger number.