The University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences congratulates Tess Schiesl (BA Political Science '19) on her successful career as a Hawkeye!
Tess, who earned honors in political science and also completed a minor in philosophy, graduated with Distinction in December 2019, and was the runner-up in the competition to deliver the address from a graduate. Her speech is below.
Graduates, family members, friends, and faculty members, it is an honor to be a part of this celebration. It feels like just yesterday I made my decision to attend the University of Iowa, but, at the same time, that memory feels like a decade ago. Now the pressure is on as we all move past college life and look to enter the corporate world. Or at least that’s what many of us are anticipating, but we all know that sometimes life can have a mind of its own.
At 16, I thought I knew what my life would look like by the time I was twenty-one. I planned to attend culinary school and eventually open a bakery. Throughout high school, I baked cupcakes for weddings and created a brand for myself. So, everyone around me also thought culinary school would be the path for me. I only visited culinary schools, dragging my family across the country to tour programs and weigh options. But obviously, I did not attend culinary school because here I am standing in front of you today.
At 18, I sat in my dorm room at a small community college, certain that I had the next four years all figured out. I would transfer after two years and find a division 2 school to continue my soccer and education career. However, quickly into my freshman year, I realized I needed a University to better equip me in tackling my aspiration of impacting the world in a positive way. So, I transferred to Iowa to major in political science and hung the soccer jersey up once and for all.
At 19, I walked into Phillips Hall to attend my first class as a University of Iowa student, and it finally felt like I was on the right path. I quickly started counting the days until graduation and claimed I had senioritis as a sophomore. I am someone who always looks forward to the next best step, so I calculated my future plans to perfection. I would do whatever it took to set myself up for success in the political realm. Meanwhile, strangers continued to ask me, “And what exactly are you going to do with a political science degree?”
At 21, I stand here today not knowing what my future holds. Now that I’m a little wiser, I understand that not knowing is sometimes okay. As my past has shown me, life seldom goes as planned. Luckily, we can learn from our miscalculations and proceed to grow stronger. I haven’t given up my passions of baking and soccer, instead, I’ve learned to incorporate them into my life in new ways. I am a volunteer soccer coach for third and fourth grade boys, and I still bake cupcakes for weddings. Thankfully, I have a mother who has shown me the value of perseverance and a father who is 53 and regularly reminds me that he still doesn’t know what he wants to be when he grows up.
So, Let’s shoot for our highest goals and plan on accomplishing great things. But let’s try not to be disappointed when things don’t always go our way. We have our whole lives to change the world and the path to success is rarely linear. So, we should remember it’s okay to be unsure about the next steps in life. Fortunately, we all have a solid foundation in the University of Iowa. We can lean back on our experiences here and the knowledge and skills we’ve gained, and we can rest in knowing that we are ready for whatever our future holds. We’re now transitioning from Hawkeye student to Hawkeye alumni.
Some of us will continue on to graduate school, others will enter the workforce, and some haven’t even thought that far ahead. Nonetheless, this degree we’ve all earned is merely a stepping stone on the long road ahead of us to our final destination. Kurt Vonnegut, who accredited the Iowa Writers’ Workshop for rescuing him in the mid 1960’s, once said, “We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.” The University of Iowa has helped to develop our wings, but we’re about to jump off the cliff and into the real world. Odds are that we still have a long way to go until our wings are fully developed, so let’s keep testing them.
—Tess Schiesl