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2016 Matriculation Address 2016.03.08

February 26, 2016

 

Dear proud new students of Yonsei,

 

I would like to sincerely welcome every one of you entering Yonsei today. Despite the cold weather, I am deeply encouraged by your warm-hearted passion and high spirit. I would also like to thank all parents for caring for your sons and daughters day and night through their many challenges and struggles that led to today’s entrance ceremony. Thank you for supporting and sending your outstanding children to Yonsei University.

 

Some of you standing here today may have stayed up all night in excitement or may be feeling overjoyed and eager to realize your dreams for university life. Some students may be setting ambitious plans and others may be dreaming of independence, liberated from their high school days. I wish I could speak to everyone, one-on-one, to hear about their aspirations and plans. Unfortunately, I cannot get to know all of you, but I would like to share a few words of advice for everyone here today before this new journey begins.

 

First of all, I would like to ask a question. You may have many plans and goals swirling in your heads right now. Take a moment to consider, though, if your plans merely consist of what and how—that is, what you plan to do and how you plan to do it. You may be determined to achieve ambitious plans such as: “I am going to get straight A’s,” “I will learn three different languages” or “I will work hard to get a good career.” But I would like to ask if you ever stopped and thought to yourself about why. “Why do I need good grades?” Why do I want to learn three languages?” “Why should I work hard for a good career?” It is concerning that our youth today are sunken in the questions of what and how, disregarding the meaning of asking oneself why.

 

As you begin your university life, please try to find the meaning behind why you should be a university student and why you are standing at Yonsei. It is not about writing another sentence on your cover letter or grading yourself, but it is about beginning to find the reason and meaning to one’s own life.

 

Your generation will be living to see past 2100. Based on the current development trend of medical science, you will be living in the age of the super centennial, where average life expectancy is over 110 years. You will be seeing the world in 2100. A decade ago, as an elementary school student, it would have been hard to imagine what the world would be like in 2016. It is even more difficult to imagine the year 2100, 84 years from now. If you came here to simply receive vocational training to cater to the changing needs of the future society, you came to the wrong place.

 

Over the next year, you will be receiving Yonsei’s proud Residential College education at the University College and Wonju Campus. You will be gaining two very important assets, which are critical for your future development. First, you will be learning how to think creatively. Yonsei is not a place that exchanges career-driven qualifications for the spirit of the youth. It is my wish that this year will be a time where you will seek to find the meaning behind your admission to Yonsei and what kind of meaning your activities at Yonsei will add to your life, as well as how you will be remembered by society.

 

Another gift you will be receiving at the residential college is your newfound friends. It is my earnest request that you cherish the course of your residential college experience as you live, eat, and learn together. Become brothers and sisters with your classmates in your program, but be sure to build deep friendships with students of other disciplines as well. We are living in an age of networks, human networks. Your success depends upon how many networks you belong to and where you stand within those networks. I am not referring to worldly success. I recommend making as many friends as possible from as many different disciplines as possible. They will be your lifelong support and you will also become their pillars of trust. Within the network of friendship and trust of your friends at Yonsei, you will be inheriting the spirit of Yonsei, standing for challenge and creation, sharing and solicitude, as well as service and respect.

 

Success and failure are inextricable, like the two sides of a coin. To achieve success, one must not fear failure. If you continue to get back up after repeated failure, you will surely succeed. Complacency and following the status quo from fear of failure will not lead to success. Always think creatively and try new paths with an indomitable will. Through a life of challenges, you will be able to plan a new life. May God’s abundant blessings be upon your university life.

 

Thank you.