For a governor who has been described by critics as being highly political, his 15-minute speech to the few hundred graduates was devoid of politics Watch video
NEWARK, Del. — Taking a break from the day-to-day discussions of pensions and unions, Gov. Chris Christie delivered a commencement address at his alma mater today that encouraged students to look beyond the normal paths in life.
"I’m all for changing the world, but you don’t have to do that," Christie told graduates at the University of Delaware. "All you have to do is stand ready to change yourself."
Christie was conferred an honorary degree before delivering an address that touched upon the need to consider paths in life other than those on which the students’ education has set them.
"Life is too short for the color and the timber and the tone of your days to be determined by nothing more than the view from your own eyes," Christie said.
This was the second winter commencement address Christie has delivered at Delaware, which has invited an alum each January since the program began in 1983. Christie, who was head of the student Senate when he was a student, helped established the mid-academic year graduation ceremony.
For a governor who has been described by critics as being highly political, his 15-minute speech to the few hundred graduates was devoid of politics.
Instead, he told the graduates at the Bob Carpenter Center they shouldn’t let their life be constrained by only the things they know and understand now.
Christie, who graduated from the school with a political science degree in 1984, told a story of enrolling in a poetry class to impress a girlfriend, adding that it wasn’t his wife, Mary Pat, whom he also dated in college.
After thinking the class would be irrelevant, he found the professor made poets relevant to him.
"I’m not sure this has made me a better lawyer, but what it did was help to take off the blinders. It opened my mind to other things," Christie said.
Christie encouraged the graduates to try new things in life and not let a sense of complacency prevent them from opening new doors.
"When that time comes in your life — and you will never know in advance when it is coming — when that time comes I wish for you to walk through those new and mysterious doors," Christie said. "It’s going to take a lot of courage to listen to your heart and to decide to climb another hill."
Related coverage:
• Gov. Christie says no surprises planned for State of the State address this week
• Gov. Christie to return to University of Delaware for commencement address
• Gov. Christie plans to use ARC tunnel money to pay for repairs to N.J. bridges, roads
• N.J. Gov. Christie approves toughest anti-bullying law in the country
• Gov. Christie signs bill allowing advertisements on school buses
