2012

'Set goals and believe in yourself' ECCC commencement speaker tells graduates Goal ~ettJng and believing m one· ~elf was the me sage

delivered by East Central Community College graduating sophomore LaTia Peavy of Carthage, who was the featured speaker at the College'<; 83rd Commencement held Saturday. vtay 12, 2012, at the Neshoba County Coliseum in Philadelphia. Peavy, a Dean's List schol– nr and pre-med major recently .;elected to receive a Mississippi 1.ural Physicians Scholarshlp, vas among the apprOJumately no graduates who were pre– ~ented diplomas by retiring ECCC President Dr. Phil A. Sutphln. Peavy, who was also a member of Theta Xi Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, the mtema– tional honor society for two– year colleges and served as 2011 Homecoming Queen. hegan her remarks by asking the following question: "ls it not ~uch a great feeling to know that .ill of our hard work and dedica– tion put into long days of lec– tures and long nights of study was not in vain?" The Carthage High School graduate said reaching the grad– uation milestone "was not easy... but we were determined und stayed focus; however, we ~annot let this be the end. We must continue to strive toward excellence in all our future endeavors." Peavy stressed the impor– tance of goal-setting and related n story about a young man who purchac;ed a bus ticket in hopes of finding a job away from bis mmetown. When asked the location of his destination, he replied to the 'cket clerk, "I don't know; just 'ive me a ticket to somewhere." "The moral of the story," Peavy continued, "is that if you Jo not know where you are going, you carmot take the steps 'lecessary to get there." Peavy said a mistake many people make is that they fail to Jetennine what they really want o accomplish in life and outline •plan to do .;o. "I feel compelled to stress the importance of setting goals. \.Vhirh IP!ltl~ mP tn ""''"' nnt

Students participating on the program for East Central Community College's 83rd commence– ment included graduating sophomores (pictured, from left} Matthew Dempsey of Louisville and Polly Vaughn of Decatur, who presented the mus1cal selection "For Good;" Lalia Peavy of Carthage, commencement speaker; Raychal Reed of Louisville, who gave the invocation; and Dustin Cullen of Carthage, benediction. (EC Photo)

'ome b;t-.ic questions many of us have been presented in our lives....such as 'Who?' 'What?' 'When?' 'Where?' 'Why?' and 'Hov. ··· Regarding the "Who" ques– tion, Peavy remarked, "Who we are leads to what we want to accomplish in our lives. As the old saying goes, ·u you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.' Therefore, we must strive to accomplish more, even when our goals are reached." She said "What?" is the "trickiest" of the questions. "It is important to look toward the future instead offocusing whol– Jy on what we will do today," she explained. Peavy said "When?" "is now.••. e.. erythmg we do now detemunes our future success. Procrastination usually leads to more work, so being aware of When we plan to succeed will keep us balancedand even light– en our loads " "The 'Where?"' Peavy said, ··will be deternuned by what we have done up to this point to prepare us for events to come. Where will we end? Where must we go to achieve? Whe1ever we go, it is never too far away to always keep our homes in our hearts ant! remem– ber the le.-;~ons we have learned from our families, not excluding our East Central family."

Peavy the "Why?" question "is one we will never stop asking. This will only keep us growing. We may never know exactly why we work toward certain goals until we have actually reached them and gained a sense of pride in ourselves." As to "How?" Peavy stated, "How do we want to achieve? Only we can answer this ques– tion. We should always believe in ourselves and remember that with determination no goal is unattainable.., "Now that we have these questions in mind." Peavy said. "we should work to incorporate them into our lives. After we leave here, we should take time to consider what goals we have set in our lives..and ask our- selves if we worked ow hardest to reach them? And, what goals have we set for tht; future?'' She concluded her remark.-. w1th the following statement: "If we, the East Central remarked

changes the future.'' . In addition to Peavy, other graduating sophomores who participated in the commence– ment program wen: Raycbal Reed of Louisville, invocation: Du~tin Cullen of Carthage, benediction, ant! Polly Vaughn of Decatur and Matthew Dempsey of Loui:;ville, Y.ho pt:rfonned a musical ~election. "For Good.'' Dr. Lavinia Sparkman. retrr– ing Vice President lor lnstruction. presented candi– dates for graduation to Dr. Sutphm.

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lEMOCRAT

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Communi.ty c.ollege Class of INTY TIMES 2012, believe m ourselves and ------- are willing to put forth the effort OUNTY JOURNAL ___ to set and achieve goals, we can cert:unly have a positive effect :OGER

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9n our families, communities, and the rest of the world, for nothing we do can change the J>.. ~t but everytlung we do