"Constancy Amid Change"

Commencement Address 2007

Katherine Bryant

Outstanding Senior, Class of 2007

Well, Class of 2007, what a time of change this is!

But change is no new feat for us at Presbyterian College. We fondly remember what it was like to have two sidewalks from GDH, but are now excited as the new science wing takes shape. We supported the bookstore in its move off campus, approved the plans for the new Springs Campus Center building in Senate, and watched as PC entered into the Big South Conference.

We were a part of pivotal decisions for the school regarding faculty requirements and relations with our Presbyterian community of faith. How fitting that this past fall's orientation theme was "Under Construction." We welcomed the class of 2010, with hard hats and hammers in hand. Uniquely complementing the theme was PC's college-wide mission to complete its own Habitat for Humanity house in town, where the incoming class teamed up with older students to lay the foundation - literally and figuratively - of our year long endeavor of service.

Most recently, our class has contributed its own project to the construction on campus. Hopefully by now, you've taken note of our class gift of the new brick bell tower and alumni brick area to the side of Neville. The bell itself, known to some as the Victory Bell, stands as perhaps the oldest tradition of the college. The bell we re-dedicated to service yesterday was in fact cast before the campus even existed. In joining with other PC alumni on this project, we gained a unique perspective, intertwining their rich years of tradition while pioneering our own traditions at PC. Our efforts together embodied the community that is PC - giving the Victory Bell a more solid and lasting home.

Former director of alumni and public relations, Ben Hay Hammet was a devoted proponent of the college and during his lifetime could have been regarded as "Mr. PC." In his book The Spirit of PC, Hammet described the bell as a symbol for "constancy amid the change." This bell has no doubt seen changes across the campus. Be it victories on the athletic fields, changes to curriculum, physical changes to the infrastructure of the college, or changes in the world around - just imagine the global events that this bell has witnessed, each time ringing loudly as a symbol for PC's commitment as an institution of higher education and promise that we face darker days or the brightest of mornings the PC community will be ready to serve.

Breaking Hammett's words down, we have two nouns - "constancy" and "change" - two antonyms connected by the word "amid" meaning "in the middle of." Interestingly, Webster even defines "constancy" as freedom from change. Rewritten, Hammet's words actually are "our beloved bell stands as 'freedom from change in the middle of change!'"

Both can be taken to the extreme, as in the "complacency" form of constancy. But I'd like to consider both words to be positive and downright glorious! We value constancy as a powerful loyalty to our rich values and traditions, celebrating our roots. From our experiences at PC, our values are planted so firmly within that we experience a freedom which allows us to embrace rather than fear the change within the world that we enter. We desire change to fuel innovation, inspire our imagination and celebrating our potential.

A vital part of our time in college transcends the classroom and the books and exams. It is a life experience that grows and shapes us. I would like to hope that each of us has been changed by this place - by the people we have encountered, the experiences we will cherish, and those light bulb moments in which we truly get it. It's not the physical campus of PC that remains constant so much as the spirit - the values and pursuits of the people that are part of this great legacy and the knowledge that while we live we serve, and while we serve we live.

I cannot give you the full picture unless I am completely honest with you. After studying abroad for a semester in Prague, I experienced great changes in my life - changes that were necessary for me to grow and realize my potential. I arrived back at PC feeling out of place, and even suffocated by being on the campus. However, over my remaining two years, I learned to appreciate the rarity of the nurture and constancy that PC provides. During this time, I learned a lot about transitions. Maybe you could deem this time my "AMID" period. It was during this time that I came to understand that college is designed as a transitional period from childhood to adulthood.

It is a feather in PC's cap that during this four-ish year journey we are guided to the bitter-sweet realization in life that while we must leave beloved friends and professors, we eagerly await the opportunity to engage in something new. I would like to think that that would be one of PC's greatest hopes - that we would want to leave - to take all that we've learned and use it to impact our own section of the world. I sat on the steps of Neville the other day with one of my dearest friends and as we reflected on our experiences of college, she said that she loved who her friends were as freshmen but, more importantly, she was inspired by who they had become while here.

We are admitted to PC because it sees something in us - but over four years PC changes us, and "trains us up" as it says in Proverbs to leave here to serve others, not for ourselves or to credit this college, but because the value of service becomes integrated into our very lives. These are constancies in our lives - personality traits that make us the same as when we arrived to the call "Howdy Hose," - but we are changed by the experiences and encounters at PC are now imbedded deep within.

Just recently, I learned the extent to which PC traditions last when I excitedly told my dad that I was able to look out over all of campus from an unnamed Neville location. Honestly, he was not that impressed because he had done the same thing in his day at PC.

Maybe the greatest lesson I have learned from all of this, is the constancy of our God. I've encountered many ideas and particulars about religion on this campus, sometimes inspiring and other times frustrating or challenging, but it is our faith that remains constant through the upheavals of change - AMID the changes in our world and the changes in our lives - God is constant and real.

May Presbyterian College and each of you continue to embrace change and even SEEK change. May our roots be firm but not so deep that we cannot grow. And may we always be able to come back and be inspired by the spirit of PC and the constancy that it is.