May 16, 2026

Below is a full transcript of the Commencement speech given at the 2026 ceremony by SGA President, Connor Walters. Connor will attend Stanford in the fall.

“Good evening, everyone.

It is truly an honor to speak before you today and represent the graduating class of 2026.

Two years ago, the summer after high school, I remember sitting in my car after a long shift at Walmart, completely stuck. A lot of people around me seemed to know exactly where they were going next. I did not.

I had not gone straight to a university, and at the time, I wondered if that meant I was already falling behind. I did not know exactly what I wanted to do. I did not know what the next few years were supposed to look like. But I did know one thing: if I kept waiting until I felt completely certain, the opportunity in front of me might pass me by.

So I began anyway.

And looking back now, that decision—the one I made before I felt completely ready—became one of the best things that could have happened to me.

So today, as we sit here at the edge of another uncertain beginning, I keep coming back to one question:

What does it actually mean to be ready?

But before I try to answer that, I want to congratulate all of you. Graduating from college is a huge milestone. Whether the path felt clear, difficult, or somewhere in between, you made it. You chose a path that was not always traditional, not always simple, and probably not always convenient.

And that is worth celebrating.

To the families, friends, faculty, staff, and supporters here today: thank you. Thank you for your kindness, your encouragement, your patience, and for helping create an environment where we could learn, grow, and succeed. Without you, none of us would be ready to graduate today.

Of course, each of us took a different path into that readiness.

Some of us came straight from high school. Others came here looking for a new direction. Some of us worked while taking classes. Some supported families. Some commuted. Some carried responsibilities that no one else in the classroom could fully see.

That is part of what makes a community college graduation so meaningful. Nobody walks this stage without a story.

Forsyth Tech meets people where they are: after work, between responsibilities, after plans have changed, and before confidence fully arrives.

But even with all of our different stories, there were moments here that belonged to all of us. We saw it in the small bursts of joy: the conversations with new friends after class, the relief after a final exam, the collective exhale after submitting something right before 11:59, and the way we celebrated each other’s next steps, even when we had not fully figured out our own.

Those moments may have seemed small at the time. But looking back, they were not small at all.

They were signs that we were becoming something. Not all at once, and not always in ways that felt obvious. Sometimes growth looked like confidence. Sometimes it looked like exhaustion. Sometimes it looked like asking for help. Sometimes it looked like showing up again after a week that gave us every reason not to.

One lesson I have heard in different ways from the people who taught and supported us here is that progress does not always announce itself while it is happening. Sometimes it just looks like continuing. And I think that is true for this class.

A lot of us did not have every step perfectly planned when we arrived here. And even if we did, life probably found a way to complicate the plan. But we adapted. We navigated uncertainty. We pushed through responsibilities, setbacks, doubts, and changes we did not always choose. That is what prepared us for today.

And after today, the structure changes again. For many of us, there will be no syllabus waiting. No assignment calendar. No discussion board. No deadline telling us exactly what comes next. There will be choices that require judgment, initiative, and responsibility. And that can feel unsettling. But uncertainty is not unreadiness.

We already know how to work without guarantees. We already know how to adapt when the plan changes. We already know how to keep moving before the full picture is clear.

I think it took me too long to understand that success is not some fixed condition you either reach or fail to reach. It is not a title. It is not a single moment. It is finding a purpose worth pursuing and continuing to move toward it.

The reality is that most of us were not ready before we began. We became ready by beginning.

Readiness is not something we wait around for until every doubt disappears. Readiness is built through experience. And experience comes from embracing opportunity even when we are uncertain.

That is exactly what this graduating class has done. So when we leave here, let us not reduce this day to a degree, a photograph, or a completed requirement.

Let us remember what it proves:

that we carried more than people knew,

that we were helped by more people than we can fully repay,

and that we became ready not because the path was certain, but because we kept moving anyway.

That is the meaning of this day. That is the honor of this class. Graduates, we are not here to wait for the world to define us. We are here to define what comes next.

Congratulations, Class of 2026.

Thank you.”