Virginia Avery graduated from 沃拉沃拉大学 in 2022 with a Master's in Social Work. She is the current owner of Avery Counseling & Services, LLC and a proud mother of four. Below is an adaptation of her student commencement address for the Class of 2022.
My adult life has been a wandering path—California, 新汉普郡, 华盛顿, 俄勒冈州, Montana; sailor, 山嬉皮, 滑雪巡逻员, 荒地消防队员, 全职妈妈, 现在, 社会工作者. I’ve lost and found myself many times over.
The only constant is change.
Life happens when you make plans.
3月14日, 2020, when I first heard that the coronavirus had arrived in Montana, the news hit me like end times. Nothing in the volumes of young adult dystopian literature, 科幻三部曲, and homesteading websites that I’ve devoured over the years had prepared me for the internal shift I would experience. Whatever problems existed on personal and societal levels became instantly amped up, 要求注意. The pandemic placed a blaring spotlight on the holes in our safety nets. I felt the collective grief and recognition that things would not, 不应该, go back to the way they were before.
I spent every early spring day that year weeping in my garden, watching the seeds I planted sprout and grow while I felt as if I were dying inside. I was forced to look at what I already knew, but in my privilege, could afford to ignore. 2020年5月, as the world erupted around me, 我走进浴室, shaved my head ala Britney Spears 2007, and sat down to fill out my grad school application. 我哭完了. I realized during that spring in my garden, as my dreams shifted and grew, that if this weird toilet paper and Tiger King-loving era was the start of the end, then I didn’t want to go down without a fight.
, 9月, when I logged into my first 在线 class from my laundry room/office, I found my people—the ones crazy enough to sign up for graduate school not only in a pandemic, but during a time where we were witnessing historical unrest and shifting power paradigms. We were the ones brave enough to run towards disaster. We were the ones that couldn’t, and wouldn’t, do nothing.
This is my story but it’s also our story. In the hardest of times, you will find the best of humanity shining brightly.
My 沃拉沃拉大学 cohort, my professors and mentors, are the brightest of lights. I was honored with an intimacy that I don’t think would have been possible if life hadn’t gotten in the way of our in-person plans. Week after week we logged into class with our weighted blankets and emotional support coffee, 与动物, 家庭, and laundry in the background. We logged in with newborn babies that grew into toddlers before our very eyes. We logged in during sickness and after loss.
This wasn’t the pre-pandemic plan I had imagined for myself, but I found I was part of something even better: a community of change makers and care takers. Now more than ever we are called to action. Each and every one of us has a vital role to play as we continue to navigate through fast-changing social landscapes.
I’m not the pre-pandemic person I was, but I am exactly who I am meant to be. Through my experience at 沃拉沃拉大学, I’ve been empowered to create safe places and hold hard things. I’ve been equipped with the tools to change and create change. I’ve learned that becoming a 社会工作者 is the closest thing to becoming a Jedi that a person can get: we are always trying to manipulate the force in favor of our clients, and we are called to push back against the dark side.
我的WWU家庭, 希望贩子, 社会工作专业的学生, may the force be with you and the odds ever in your favor.
