Convocation Speech

Given at Convocation for the  opening of the Fall semester at New England Conservatory on September 3,2009 in Jordan Hall. My cohort in crime was my ever-lovely, provocative, hairy, and insightful best friend, Brandon Cordeiro. Incidently, he’s looking for a husband and soul-mate. Know anyone? We gots to hook a brother up!! 

Without further ado… 

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Ceceilia: Well, where did we leave off last time?? Oh, right, WELCOME TO COLLEGE! You made it. You’re here. You’ve been oriented to this huge campus, an overwhelming class size, and that behemoth of a football stadium looming a mile away from your dorm. All of you, new and returning, know the buildings, your agenda is in your hand and you’ve staked out the practice rooms with air-conditioning. Now that you know this campus inside and out, ask yourself… does this campus know me? Do I know me? What does that even mean?

Ceceilia: For those of you who may not know us, I’m Ceceilia.

Brandon: And I’m Brandon.

Ceceilia: We’re both Resident Assistants in The Dorm ™

Brandon: We both love to laugh and have killer, completely inappropriate senses of humor.

Ceceilia: We’re also extremely modest.

Brandon: I grew up in liberal, ultra-gay, Portuguese Provincetown, Mass.

Ceceilia: I grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana going to Wal-Mart with the Amish.

Brandon: I do voice over work, sing in operas, study voice, and practice underwater basket weaving… but have no idea what I want to do for my career.

Ceceilia: I know I want to be a singer, but that hasn’t stopped me from things like doing activist work or a finance internship.

Brandon: So do you think they know us now?

Ceceilia: Hahah. Hardly. It takes more than just reciting facts to get to know people.

Brandon: When you join a new community, it can often seem like a labor-intensive process in order to integrate.

Ceceilia: In our life experience and in our experience building community as Resident Assistants, we’ve learned a few truths about community that we’d like to share with you today. So ask yourself…

Brandon: First, do I know me???

Ceceilia: Who am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going?  Have I actually named the facts of who I am? If I scream them louder will people get to know me faster? What if I write it on my whiteboard in the hallway? What if I wear it on a T-Shirt? Will people “get me” then?

Brandon: Second, what does all this even mean????  

Ceceilia: When I came to college, I realized that I had to decide not only how to describe myself, but how I felt about myself. I asked … Why do I choose specific words? Do I consider why others may choose different words? Do I choose this for a factual reason or have life experiences led me to this decision of how to name myself?

Brandon: See, it’s a two part process. First, we have to name ourselves, and second, we have to own up in word and deed to what a “name” means to us.

Ceceilia: And the easiest way to do that is to bring your personality to each and every moment. For example… I have only one name that I go by—Ceceilia—whereas, Brandon…  

Brandon: …has somewhere around 20 different characters that are a part of me. Each of them is a real person. They each have names—Valerie, Shaniqua, Betsy Sue, Florencia Caparelli, Rufus…

Ceceilia: And when you ask them simple questions like where they’re from, they bring their personalities and perspectives to each moment. They are not ashamed of letting their communities know who they are.

Ceceilia: So, what’s your name and where are you from?

Brandon: Hi der, I’m Betsy Sue. Born and raised in Minnesota and a proud, proud, homeland lover. There’s nothing like my kids, my Wal-Mart and muh husband Karl. God bless. It’s simply who I am. That’s where I come from, that’s what I do. Why not have PRIDE in it, right? But Karl says… Having pride is something very important. I feel very fortunate to be in a loving relationship that allows me to be so free. This says something very important about community to me: When we name something, even our limitations, like muh husband Karl, gawd love him, but I do have to say, he likes to keep a tight rein on his woman, oh…Huh, Jesus mary and Karl! I can sense what you’re thinking. You think I’m an underpaid, under-appreciated housewife. Actually, I’m all of those things… and then some. See, when we name something—however we choose to name it–suddenly it exists. And you can’t have PRIDE in something that you don’t acknowledge.

Ceceilia: While Brandon quite literally “names” the different parts of his personality, Betsy Sue demonstrates an important point for all of us. She, of course, named the facts of her life—housewife, Minnesota, middle-class, Christian—but she “named” more than just the facts by how she said them: She’s enthusiastic about her family and her way of life. She even embraces the limitations and stereotypes that go along with being a housewife. She is naming herself and opening up about what it means to her.

Brandon: It takes guts to have pride in every single aspect of who we are, especially when real-ness isn’t socially desirable. Nevertheless, your community—this NEC campus—can’t truly know you unless they know how you feel, for better or worse, about yourself.

Ceceilia: When Brandon first arrived at NEC, I didn’t understand what people were saying about his characters. It didn’t make sense… until I experienced his personality, err… all 20 or so of them.  

Brandon: But that’s me. You’re probably wondering if I have multiple personality disorder. No, no, no, I don’t. Well, actually, CONFESSION! I DO have multiple personalities. But it’s not about a disorder. It’s about embracing every part of who I am.

Ceceilia: Some of you in this community, like Betsy Sue, love your underpaid and underappreciated lives.

Ceceilia: Some of you are the apple of society’s eye.

Brandon: Some of you at NEC are understood and some of us… well, aren’t.

Brandon: Some of you are pigeonholed in the world of “disorders” or as “weird” or as (gasp!) AWKWARD.

Ceceilia: Some of you feel pressure from other’s narrow definitions of “talent”.

Brandon: Sometimes it can be really easy to be REAL and sometimes it can be totally uncomfortable.

Ceceilia: It may even change from situation to situation. But that’s ok, because the final part of this puzzle called community doesn’t end with you.

Brandon: You see, when we’re real ourselves, we make it easier for others to be real as well. And each of you in the audience today can affect our shared NEC community for good by simply being who you are.

Ceceilia: Over the years, many unique people have contributed their authentic selves to the community at this school.. My mind goes to alumna Coretta Scott King in particular.

Brandon: Cause, she kept it REAL.

Ceceilia: She was an awesome lady. She did things that only she could do, and today we are freer to be ourselves because of her commitment to community. How awesome is it to think that each of us could live a life just as great?

Brandon: Right now you are all at the start of a new year, and when you leave this hall—schedule in hand, classrooms to find, practice rooms to inhabit, halls in which to perform–you will begin to fill these spaces with community.

Ceceilia: Therefore, we challenge you to ask yourselves, “Who am I? What does that even mean? Does this campus know me?”

Brandon: This is your opportunity.

B&C: And we can’t wait to meet you.