在不确定性中，您的道路等待着，因为世界需要您

去年八月我返回UF总统时，我不得不重新学习如何再次担任总统

Amid uncertainty, your path awaits, for the world needs you

在不确定性中，您的道路等待着，因为世界需要您

2025 Spring Commencement Keynote Address by UF Interim President Kent Fuchs

2025年春季开学主题演讲，由UF临时总裁肯特·福赫斯（Kent Fuchs）

Graduates, when I returned as UF president last August, I had to relearn how to be presidential again and to do the important things that presidents do.

毕业生，当我去年8月回到UF总统时，我不得不重新学习如何再次担任总统并做总统所做的重要事情。

For example, put on a big orange traffic cone suit to be “Coney, the Friendly Neighborhood Traffic Cone.”

例如，穿上一件大型橙色交通锥套装，成为“ Coney，友好的社区交通锥”。

And, issue the FXG, Foxy Gator, University of Florida meme coin.

并发行佛罗里达大学模因硬币FXG，狐狸鳄鱼。

I loved being Coney and having fun on April 1 — and I’ve loved all my time with you.

我喜欢成为康尼（Coney），并在4月1日玩得开心 - 而且我一直爱着你。

And now … graduates … we are here to celebrate! You are receiving your degree from the University of Florida, and I get to cheer your accomplishment and send you on your way.

现在……毕业生……我们在这里庆祝！您正在从佛罗里达大学获得学位，我可以为您的成就加油，并送您途中。

It’s celebration time!

这是庆祝时间！

However, I recognize that you may feel some anxiety about what comes next in your life.

但是，我认识到您可能对生活中接下来会发生什么感到有些焦虑。

A quiet, anxious voice may be asking:

一个安静，焦虑的声音可能会问：

_What’s next? What have these years at UF been building up to?_

_接下来是什么？这些年来，UF正在建立什么？_

When I graduated college, I thought I knew the direction of my life. I was graduating with a bachelor’s degree in engineering. However, in my last two years of college, I had been involved with other students in a local church.

当我大学毕业时，我以为我知道生活的方向。我正在获得工程学学士学位。但是，在大学的最后两年中，我曾与其他学生一起在当地的教会中参与其中。

I decided in my final year not to pursue a career in electrical engineering, but rather to attend seminary, divinity school, so that I could be ordained as a pastor, a fulltime minister of a church.

在最后一年，我决定不从事电气工程职业，而是要参加神学院的神学院学校，这样我就可以被任命为牧师，教堂的全职部长。

So, that is what I did or at least tried to do.

因此，这就是我所做的或至少尝试做的。

After my engineering graduation ceremony, I drove to Chicago, where I took an intensive summer course on New Testament Greek.

在工程毕业典礼后，我开车去了芝加哥，在那里我参加了新约希腊语的夏季课程。

That fall, I entered the three-year masters of divinity program, which went fine for the first year — but then I took my first homiletics class on writing and preaching sermons.

那个秋天，我进入了三年的神学硕士课程，该计划在第一年表现不错 - 但是后来我参加了我的第一届Homiletics班，上面写着讲道和讲道。

I discovered I couldn’t write or deliver a sermon in a way that stirred people’s emotions or touched their hearts. I could inform, but I couldn’t inspire. It’s hard to be a pastor, rabbi or imam if you can’t reach people’s hearts.

我发现我无法以激起人们的情绪或感动他们的心的方式写或讲道。我可以告知，但我无法启发。如果您无法触及人们的心，那么很难成为牧师，拉比或伊玛目。

To make things worse, my girlfriend at the time broke up with me. I was also struggling financially, despite working late nights and weekends as a security guard.

为了使事情变得更糟，当时我的女朋友和我分手了。尽管深夜和周末担任保安人员，但我也在经济上挣扎。

I was heartbroken and my career plans were shattered.

我伤心欲绝，我的职业计划被打破了。

Graduates, if ever you feel this way about your life plans … or if, maybe, you even feel this way today… as your president, I predict that there will be an even better and richer life before you than you can possibly dream, in the midst of your uncertainty and disappointment.

毕业生，如果您对自己的人生计划有这种感觉……或者，如果您今天甚至感觉这种感觉……作为您的总统，我预测，在您的不确定性和失望中，您可能会有比您梦dream以求的更好，更丰富的生活。

As I was worrying about my apparent failure in seminary, I came to realize that my shortcoming could be my strength.

当我担心自己在神学院的明显失败时，我意识到自己的缺点可能是我的力量。

My seminary professors told me that I wasn’t good at reaching people’s hearts with my public speaking, but I could reach their heads.

我的神学院教授告诉我，我不擅长通过公开演讲来吸引人们的心，但我可以触及他们的头脑。

I couldn’t preach, but I could teach. I came to realize I enjoyed teaching, and that being an educator could be as important as being a pastor.

我无法讲道，但我可以教。我开始意识到自己喜欢教学，并且成为一名教育者可能和担任牧师一样重要。

This realization, of both my weakness and my strength, led me to return to engineering for graduate school, with a new goal of teaching students as a college professor.

这种意识到我的弱点和力量，使我重返研究生院的工程学，其新目标是教学学生作为大学教授。

Electrical engineering graduate school for me was also really hard since it had been several years since my last engineering class.

对我来说，电气工程研究生院也非常困难，因为我上次工程课已经几年了。

I discovered that the students for whom I was a Teaching Assistant knew more than me.

我发现我作为助教的学生比我了解更多。

But I survived, and with persistence and patience, eventually thrived in nearly six years of engineering graduate school.

但是我幸存下来，并保持了持久和耐心，最终在近六年的工程研究生院繁荣发展。

That moment of painful reckoning in divinity school …

在神学院的那一刻痛苦的时刻…

That time I thought I wasted three years and didn’t know what to do …

那个时候我以为我浪费了三年，不知道该怎么办...

It was awful.

太糟糕了。

It was great.

太好了。

It ended my path but directed me to a new path and purpose.

它结束了我的道路，但将我带到了新的道路和目的。

Not only that, divinity school is where I met my partner and wife, Linda. She was returning an overdue library book, which I needed for a paper I had to write about infant baptism.

不仅如此，Divinity School是我遇到我的伴侣和妻子Linda的地方。她正在返回一本逾期的图书馆书，我需要写一篇关于婴儿洗礼的论文。

Here we are at this time on a date in Chicago. I worked really hard to get that crease in my jeans!

在这里，我们在芝加哥约会。我真的很努力地穿上牛仔裤！

I lost my dream of serving as a fulltime pastor, but I gained much more.

我失去了担任全职牧师的梦想，但我获得了更多。

I got a library book, a life partner — Hi, Linda! — and a new direction to my life.

我有一本图书馆书，一位生活伴侣 - 嗨，琳达！ - 以及我生活的新方向。

There’s a saying that old men like to give good advice because they can no longer set bad examples.

有人说，老人喜欢给出好的建议，因为他们再也不能设定不好的例子了。

So, I’m going to tell you three things I’ve learned about not knowing what to do next, wrong turns, and not achieving my own expectations.

因此，我将告诉您我学到的三件事是关于不知道下一步该怎么做，错误的转弯，也没有达到自己的期望。

The first thing is to not be afraid of uncertainty.

第一件事是不要害怕不确定性。

I have found over the 40 years of my career that uncertainty in the future has been a great part of my life’s path.

在我的职业生涯的40年中，未来的不确定性是我人生道路的重要组成部分。