Justine Braun offered the following remarks at the 2015 commencement ceremony on May 16.
Braun graduates from the College of Letters and Science.
“Hello parents, friends, faculty, staff and most importantly, graduates of the class of 2015. I’m standing before you, shocked I made it this far without any bouts of extreme exhaustion or caffeine overdose. We made it to the finish line, and had experiences over the last few years we will never forget. I think it’s fair to say that everyone has had a very different college experience. The phrase “college experience” alone means many things to many different people. The people who survived college and are walking across this stage today said “yes” to that experience.
“As a freshman I started at Oshkosh with the goal to get a degree and get out, and maybe even graduate early. And within that goal there was no thought of any college experience. I started here as a commuter student, still living with my parents, driving 15 minutes from Neenah every day. I went to class, and came home. I did homework, and I watched 30 Rock on Netflix. For m,e college honestly didn’t feel any different from high school. By the end of my first semester I was already considering transferring or taking a break from school all together. I came into Oshkosh as a secondary education major with a history minor and I quickly realized even if I thought I’d be a good teacher, I wasn’t passionate about it. I didn’t know what I was passionate about. I was ready to drop out of UW Oshkosh but not because I was failing my classes. I was failing at the college experience.
“One night I sat with my dad not knowing what my future looked like and he asked me then what seemed like a silly question. ‘What did Tina Fey go to school for?’ I paused. What did 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live star Tina Fey have to do with my college plans? ‘Um…theater tech I think? I don’t know…’ I finally replied. I loved comedy and TV so much my dad thought it was a simple solution; just do what Tina Fey did. I changed my major to radio-TV-film in the spring semester of my freshman year and I never looked back.
“My first year at Oshkosh felt like my 5th year of high school because I didn’t do anything to appreciate the college experience. To some, it’s making a ton of friends, joining a ton of clubs and activities, making the dean’s list. I wasn’t doing any of that. For some it’s the parties! And dating a bunch of people! I wasn’t doing any of that either.
“I started my sophomore year joining radio-TV-film and Titan TV. I was happy to do anything and everything. Thinking back to Tina Fey she has said over and over to say ‘yes and…’ and my second year at UW Oshkosh that’s all I did. I made my college experience by taking on any and every opportunity to say ‘yes, and…’ Over my sophomore year I said, ‘yes’ to doing live interviews on Titan TV News. I said ‘yes; to acting and eventually writing and produce a fall TV show, and by the following spring said ‘yes’ to producing my own TV show and a spot on the Titan TV executive board. Did my yes and… attitude ever back fire? Sure. Once I agreed to help a member of Titan TV and ended up, what he called his, “personal assistant.” But other than that, it was great!
“As you’ve learned today, I love television, but above all I love sitcoms. The situational comedy is defined by its episodes. Each episode is its own world and for a moment chaos ensues but by the end of the episode the story and characters return to where it all began or where they are going next. For most of us, we are here, in Kolf where college began a few years ago and this? This is our series finale. Each one of your characters has developed into some new form of yourselves, ready for the rest of your story. Some of you may be clinging for your show to keep going. Some of you may have had too many seasons and you just want this show to be canceled. These seasons were made up of episodes that defined your own college experience. You’ll remember the big moments, you’ll try to forget the bad moments, and you laugh at the memories, even without the typical laugh track to clue you in.
“Looking out at all of you, I can see on many faces that you too have had, whatever your form may be, of the college experience. For me, it was being so busy and active within my major I barely had time for sleep. For some of you it may have been the same. And for others, school was fine but you just really loved being in college. Whatever your experience may have been, it’s time to start the next chapter in life. I’m going to continue to say, yes and… and I challenge you all to the same mantra as we enter the scary unknown people call “the real world.” And no, not the Real World from MTV, which also sounds quite scary. I wish you all the best of luck with your future endeavors and I hope you all remember to say, ‘Yes…And?’ And if all else fails, just do whatever Tina Fey did. Thank you.”
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