Biden to Delaware State grads: Value personal above professional
Dark clouds lingered over Delaware State University's football stadium Saturday morning, but the rain held off as Vice President Joe Biden exhorted the school's graduating students to lead the world into a brighter future.
The school's outdoor stadium was packed for the event with more than 8,200 family members, friends, classmates and teachers of the roughly 700 graduates, who ranged in age from 20 to 72.
"You are the most tolerant, talented, technologically advanced generations in American history," he told DSU's class of 2016. "You entered (college) to learn, but now you have to go to serve."
The 73-year-old former U.S. senator from Delaware urged them all to find a balance between their lives and careers by actively pursuing personal happiness along with professional success.
Biden said some of the happiest and most successful people he's known valued personal relationships above professional accomplishments.
"You need the heart to know the difference between what is meaningful and what is fleeting," he told the audience. "You need the head to know the difference between knowledge and judgment ... Ambition without perspective can be a killer when reality intrudes. And it will intrude."
"All of you will go through something like this," he said, imploring the students to resist the "temptation to rationalize" putting meetings and business opportunities ahead of family birthdays and vacations. Biden pointed to the deaths of his wife and daughter in a 1972 car crash and briefly touched on the death of his oldest son Beau to brain cancer in 2015.
"If you rationalize, you will lose so, so much," he said. "You may succeed but it will be very hard for you to be happy."
Finally, he said, the graduates students must be willing to accept the risk of failure.
"Change is hard but necessary," he said. "Progress is never easy, but it is always possible."
Minutes after Biden finished his speech, the sun poked out from behind the clouds before the sky opened into a steady downpour. But the rain did little to dampen the spirits of the students, who wore plastic ponchos while collecting their diplomas.
Maryland native Edwin Motton, who earned a bachelor's degree in psychology, said he was excited for Biden's speech and encouraged to learn the vice president was the first member of his family to earn a college degree.
"I'm a first generation college student, too, so I understand the struggles of trying to get an education and pursue your goals," he said. "But, like he said, in the future we have a lot to look forward to. There's a lot more opportunities out there now so there's no reason we can't explore those avenues and get what we need."