The Road Not Taken | Naoyuki Agawa (Dean of the Faculty of Policy Management)

2008.10.02

On September 9, the September graduation ceremony was held in the West School Building auditorium at Mita. From SFC, 133 students graduated and left Keio. As I delivered a congratulatory address on behalf of the faculty and staff, I will reproduce it below.

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Congratulations on your graduation, everyone. On behalf of the faculty and staff, I would like to offer a few words of celebration.

Since being appointed Dean of the Faculty of Policy Management last February, this is the fourth time I have attended a Keio graduation ceremony. I am fond of the September graduation ceremony. The March ceremony has too many people. I always feel that Keio University is a bit too large as a school to hold a graduation ceremony for all its graduates at once.

In comparison, the September graduation ceremony is a comfortable size. I can see each of your faces, and we can all sing "Wakaki-chi" and the "Juku-ka" together. And so we send our graduates from Keio out into the wider world. You, too, are leaving this hill with various emotions in your hearts. You were fortunate to be September graduates.

Attending your graduation ceremony like this reminds me of the several graduations and graduation ceremonies I have been through myself.

However, although I studied at Keio University, I never experienced its entrance or graduation ceremonies. When I advanced from Keio's high school to the Department of Political Science in the Faculty of Law, the university was in the midst of campus disputes. The Hiyoshi campus was blockaded by a group of student activists, and the entrance ceremony could not be held. Classes could not take place at Hiyoshi, and it was not until May that some classes finally began at Mita. Two and a half years later, I went to study abroad at Georgetown University in the United States on the newly established Juku exchange program. I ended up dropping out of Keio, graduating from Georgetown, and returning to Japan. Therefore, I am a Keio dropout with no degree from here. Even if I had wanted to attend, I was not eligible to be at a Keio University graduation ceremony.

Although it was my own choice, I remember feeling a sense of loneliness when I heard the news in Washington that my withdrawal was final, even though I hadn't felt much attachment to this school until then. Looking back, I had been at Keio for five and a half years without realizing it, from high school until the summer of my third year of university. Winter passed and spring came, with cherry blossoms in full bloom surrounding the grounds at Hiyoshi. The great ginkgo tree at Mita, wet with rain, reflecting in a puddle. A female student I had a slight crush on, whom I sometimes passed on campus. In the Washington winter, as the days grew short and the cold was harsh, I found myself fondly recalling the Keio I had decided not to return to. The years have passed, and now, having unexpectedly returned to this school, it is with both envy and joy that I watch you young people graduate from Keio University.

In the 150-year history of Keio University, there have probably been all sorts of graduation ceremonies. I do not know what form the early ceremonies took, but I imagine that before he passed away, Yukichi Fukuzawa probably attended and gave a speech every year. Just imagine it. Not a painting, not a bronze statue, but the real Yukichi Fukuzawa sitting here on this stage. To use the words of today's youth, isn't that "totally awesome"? No, knowing what a diligent teacher he was, he might even now be descending from heaven, hiding somewhere in this hall, and celebrating your graduation with you.

A graduation ceremony is a joyous occasion, but it has not always been a time of good things. In its early days, Keio University was on the verge of collapse. Graduates must have left the hill of Mita with anxious hearts, wondering if their alma mater would even survive. During the Pacific War, many students graduated early from Keio and went straight from here to the battlefield. Mita hill, where most of the buildings were burned down in air raids after Japan lost the war. Even so, many of those students never returned to their beloved alma mater, which had regained peace.

I hope there will not be many such sad graduations, but in Japan and the world that you are about to enter and live in, there are countless harsh and painful things. In Iraq and Afghanistan, young soldiers not only from America but also from NATO and other countries are being deployed and losing their lives. Just recently, there was a war in Georgia. In Africa and North Korea, there are countless children starving to death. Furthermore, for the past week or so, New York and Tokyo have been in a grave situation, with major securities firms collapsing and stock markets plummeting. Whether you are starting a job or continuing your studies, you may find yourselves tossed about by rough seas the moment you leave school. At the very least, there is no guarantee of security just because you have graduated from Keio University.

Saying such things might make some of you feel anxious on what should be a special graduation day. It's all right. There is no need to be anxious. Rather, you should rejoice. Whether you get the job you hoped for or not, whether you feel mentally prepared to enter society or not, you should rejoice.

Although I could not attend Keio's graduation ceremony, I did attend the one at Georgetown University before returning to Japan. I had barely managed to graduate, and I only had a diploma from a foreign university. I was about three years older than my peers due to a serious illness in my childhood, and I had no idea what I would do when I returned to Japan. I was filled with anxiety. Georgetown is a Catholic university. On the morning of graduation day, there was a Mass. I am not a Christian, but I attended with my classmates. It was a beautiful, clear day in May. The priest officiating the Mass said, "There is only one thing I want to tell you. And that is, The News Is Good." He said, "It is good that you have all graduated. Whatever path you may take from now on, whatever trials may await you, the news is good. The news is very good."

Behind this priest's words, there is probably the Christian concept of the "Gospel." As a non-believer, I don't fully understand it. However, at that moment, I felt a strange sense of conviction and reassurance. "I see, it was good. It was good that I came to America and studied. I don't know what will become of me, and there were many things that didn't go well, but all of that is good, too." Thinking this, I felt a great sense of relief. Ever since, I have carried that sense of reassurance somewhere in my heart.

Therefore, following that priest's example, I will say this to you as well. Congratulations. In any case, it is good. I do not know what will become of you when you start your jobs. Nor do I know if you will succeed if you pursue the path of academia. But whatever path you choose, it is not a mistake. Your choice is the right one. The news is very good.

There is a famous American poet named Robert Frost. He has a poem called "The Road Not Taken."

"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

One autumn day, a traveler walking along a path in a deserted forest comes to a fork in the road. Which path should he take? Both paths were completely covered in fallen leaves and looked almost the same, but he deliberately chooses the one that seems slightly less worn by passersby. He decides to save the path not taken for another day, to walk it when he comes back someday. But since one thing leads to another, he might never come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Let me tell this now, with a sigh.

A long, long time ago, somewhere far away,

A road diverged in a wood,

And I—I,

I chose the one less traveled by,

And that was the beginning of it all.

This graduation ceremony may not be such a major event for you. Please forget my speech. But here today, you are making a new start. You will come to many forks in the road, and each time you will make a decision and walk on. Walk on without fear, without trembling, strongly, and anew.

And then, many years from now, in the distant future, if you happen to recall this day, to recall SFC, and feel, "Ah, that was the day, that was the place where I began my journey," then we—who by that time will have long since graduated not just from being Keio faculty and staff, but from life itself—will be very happy.

Once again, congratulations on your graduation.

(Date of publication: 2008/10/02)