b'g raDuatea DDressB rittanyc rumleyt eacHing anDl earningSpeech Delivered at the Doctoral Hooding Ceremony, December 20, 2023In more ways than one, it is an honor to be standing here today. Back in October, the Graduate School sent out an email that invited us to submit a draft speech to be considered for the student speaker at graduation. While reading the top part of the email, I thought, Who would want to do that?! Well, by the time I got to the bottom of the email, I thought, Well, me! I have something worth sharing! So, the following speech I prepared from my heart. I feel compelled to share this specific message during this important life-moment. This message is intended for my fellow graduates, but I invite everyone to lean in. Fellow graduates, today we receive a title that has the power to change our lives and those around us. For this reason, I invite you to pause and reflect on your graduate school experience while at Clem-son and your next steps. Moments like this in life allows us to be retrospective in a profound way. During our time at Clemson, weve explored new information and gained new knowledge. We have even contributed to the greater foundation of knowledge within our fields of expertise. But, I ask for you to pause for a moment to considerknowledge is goodgreat even, but informed wisdom is better. To be frank, the world doesnt necessarily need more knowledgebut it certainly needs more wisdom. Wisdom in how we interact with others, wisdom in how we make decisions, and wisdom in how we compassionately communicate our knowledge. Afterall, the world doesnt just need more information because information is at our fingertips (however, let me take this moment to shout out to the Clemson Library and librarians!)I definitely needed their knowledge AND their wisdom several times! My challenge to you today is to consider how you will apply your knowledge and how it impacts others, in order for it to be actionable intention aligned with your purpose. At this point, I would be doing a disservice to my time at Clemson to not mention my background and research. My background is in early education. I am a teacher through-and-through. For years, I have placed great value on the emotional experiences of the teacher and the learner. My classroom experiences led me to my research interest here at Clemson, which is on mindfulness and the emo-tional-well-being of pre-service and beginning teachers. Throughout my journey, I always come back to gratitude as a foundation for emotional well-being. For this next part, you may hear me pause to take a deep breath, because this is the open-heart part of my speech. My mother is the reason I am here today. Her two-year journey with stage-four ovarian cancer was a turning point in my life. I read a lot of books & websites and talked to a lot of peopleI gained a LOT of knowledge related to cancer, treatments, and even holistic modalities. However, I am here to tell you, knowledge only took me so far. Wisdom from this experience, opened me up to the idea that our life experiences do not follow a set of rules. My mother was healthythe rule book said she should have lived a lot longer. The lack of a road map could have stopped me in my tracks, and it did for a bit. Eventually, I discovered wisdom behind the my griefit was an opportunity to write my own rules for my life. I did not (and frankly could not) defer my dreams and purpose in this life. I began to create my own rules because life is too short. Therefore, in the spring of 2019, I applied for graduate school at Clemson. My first day of courses was Mon, August 21st, 2019. I know this date well, because it was also the day of my mothers funeral. And although, I wish my mother was physically here today, I am beyond grateful for her. She was 7'