you're entering an economy where you are competing not only against your peers in this room across the nation, but your peers around the world. the competition for jobs in this economy has never been tougher. that is the bad news. the good news is that you guys are well-prepared to to take on these challenges. for 137 years, texas a&m has been educating, mentoring, and molding the best and the brightest. here in texas, and around the world. both of the classroom, and out of the classroom, uniquely prepared for the role that you are about to enter.

texas a&m was ranked second in the nation by the "wall street journal" in a survey of top u.s. corporations, top profits, and government agencies aced on graduates preferred to hire. that is where the rubber meets the road. texas a&m is ranking the top 2025 nationally by washington monthly what colleges do for this country. you graduates become part of an ever more competitive workforce that will distort the economy. -- restore the economy. from our founding as the first public institution of higher education in texas, a&m has awarded degrees and provided an experience for thousands more. because of texas a&m and your educational efforts, you have equip yourselves to hit the ground running. you've earned your education

credentials that are economy needs today. you'll begin making a difference your future starts this weekend at the point that president lofton places your degree in one hand and shakes her other hand. what happens after that? that is up to you. i have some thoughts for you to reflect upon. on april 25, i attended the memorial services because of the explosions in west. the brother of one of the 12 men killed in that explosion talked about his brother's life in --rms of the -- between his datebetween is brother's of birth and his brother's date of death. this is what i want you to do. i want you to think about the dash in your life.

they will obviously see your date of birth, and your date of death. more importantly, what will they see in between? i want all of your dashes to be rich. i'm talking about rich with here are some thoughts. make a plan for your future. , lived or execute that plan. strive to become a leader.> serve others. let's dig into the details. along the way, i will try to build in our aggie values. let's talk about planning first. all of us know that without a plan, we do not know where we are going. take an inventory of your skills, weaknesses, and

knowledge. take these attitudes and decide what you're going to go in life, and build a plan to take you there. start now, do it tonight so that right after that diploma is placed in your hand, you can start. always keep in mind that your plan is a dynamic set of aspirations. each constantly assess how you are doing in achieving it, and adjuster plan to fit the changes fit thet your plan to chanes and your goals. for what it is worth, i did have a plan. it was written on a legal yellow pad, and it had one, 5, 19 your and ten- one, five, year goals. i carried it with me everywhere i went.

some may want to ask, how did i do versus my plan? that is a topic for another day. i want to tell you this. to prove my point about the need for constant reassessment, until the summer of 2009, 9 of my --ans ever contemplated me none of my plans ever contemplated me running for congress. here i am today. i think i have done pretty well versus my plan. now that you have written your and plan, and yet committed to follow it, and committed to revisit it, what is next? just do it. go live your plan. go execute it. when you live your plan, do it with aggie core values that you remember some thing when you're living your plan. do with self-confidence and gravitas. you build your plan in such a

way to capitalize on your strengths and minimize her weaknesses. you should be confident in it. live every day. live it every day.look in the mirror each day n andd saywhat am i going to blip my plan today? realize you are going to have setbacks along the way. some of these will be because of your mistakes, and the actions of others. learn from them, but do not well on them. when others make mistakes, remember you cannot control their actions. however you can control your actions and reactions. remember that in many cases, your ability to execute your plan will involve working with others. while working as a group or 18, or a team, remember this. the stronger the team, the

better the outcome. through unity, strength. strong teams are based upon that aggie core value of respect. the golden rule is to treat others the way you want to be treated. avoid distractions read avoid fixation. the one easiest way to explain this is finding analogies. -- flying analogies. sometimes of people are flying, some minor thing will go wrong. this distraction can keep the pilot from paying attention to what he should, and they have an accident. this would not happen if they forget about the distraction until they are sure they have a plane flying in a stable manner. then they can deal with the distractions. there are numerous examples where pilots have become overly fixated on one or two other instruments. they have crashed because they have failed to see the warning signals from the other instruments they were ignoring. keep your field of view wide

open at all times. you'll find opportunity there. remember that we do not control the number of days we have to live rate we do control -- we have to live. we do control how we live them. live it as if the day is your last. you have been living your plan. you are doing well enough that somebody notices you. it could involve being a mentor, becoming a new department manager. now what? again, we turn to our aggie core values of excellence. you should take these values and your leadership style. i had a few things for you to think about. always been willing to do what you ask others to do. if you will not do it yourself,

they will not follow you. lead with integrity. if you do not have integrity, givers will not follow you. credit to others when you or your team does well because of them. this is the most important. watch out for pride. you have and probably been asked to lead at this time. do not let go to your your head. excessive pride leads to arrogance, and arrogance leads to narciso. -- narcissism. the only person that likes arrogant or narcissistic person is themselves. if this happens to you, you'll be like the folks i work with in congress. [laughter] then you can line up with the 12% approval rating but congress today. always a member that you put your pants on one leg at a time like everybody else. you're not anyway more important

that another person. let's take an assessment of where we are now. you have updated from time to time your plan. you're living your plan every day. based on the way you have done these things, you'll been asked to leave and you're doing it well. you are a success. now what? before we answer that, let's make sure we have a clear understanding of what the success means in my view. success should not explicitly be measured in monetary terms. it can be measured by children raised, students taught, people comforted, lives saved, broken hearts heal. -- healed. discoveries made, inventions created, and nation defended, local threats mitigated by first responders, and dozens of other actions. let's talk about serving. in my mind, some he can take a-- serving can take a couple of

forms. they can include paying back others who helped you get to where you are, or paying it forward to help others get to where you are now. for this part of our conversation, it is important to remember our aggie core values. it is these values that have impacted -- this value that has many times impacted the others. excuse me. living, planning. when it comes to service, you can serve in a number of ways. by volunteering, by mentoring, and by sharing resources. it is also important to remember that while serving, our attitude is even more important. if you're serving but you are grumpy, the people that you are helping are going to know that. they're not going to know that you are doing it with an open

heart. if you're smiling, genuinely, a -- they will understand that. even though you are genuinely serving from your heart. i want to conclude with a conversation with an observation. i still consider my life a success in many ways. one of the areas i consider mike most success to be the way thatg is the fingina and i have helped others some of my more meaningful days have been when i helped others. you can build that dash that is bold, and meaningful. it will be the dash you are happy to leave as a legacy. before i wrap up our converstaion tonight, i would like to share a few

other thoughts. the first that god has given us the 10 commandments. if you use these decision tree when you make your decisions, you will always make the right ones. i next got is that god put each of you on this earth for a purpose. please find that purpose. live it. before i close, please river to pray for our country during these difficult times.pray for our men and women who protect our country from threats abroad. these men and women sacrifice and serve 24/7 to that uni can enjoy -- you and i can enjoy evenings like this. we have lost 24 brave americans in the military and first responders, including the 12 who were killed last month in west. these men each exemplified the names -- the names of jesus. -- the words of jesus.

these 24 man each have bold and meaningful dashes. when i look at this crowd, everybody, but the young graduates in particular, i see a bunch of potential for meaningful dashes. will you go build those? if so, would you signify with a strong whoop? thank you. god bless you. god bless texas aggies everywhere. [applause]

>> u.s. democratic senator mark warner was the commencement speaker at george mason university in fairfax, virginia. the former virginia governor talk to the class of 2013 for about 15 minutes. >> thank you. president cabrera, members of the board of visitors, mason faculty and staff, family, and most importantly graduates, good morning. let me be the first to also say congratulations to ernst for a job well done. you are truly a proud recipient of the mason metal. , but me also say congratulations to the class of 2013 -- let me