Baccalaureate Reading - Nicole O'Dell Odim '88, P'17

The reading today combines the words of Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, and Audre Lorde.

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”

"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."

"Next time, ask: What's the worst that will happen? Then push yourself a little further than you dare. Once you start to speak, people will yell at you. They will interrupt you, put you down, and suggest it's personal. And the world won't end. And the speaking will get easier and easier. And you will find you have fallen in love with your own vision, which you may never have realized you had. And you will lose some friends and lovers, and realize you don't miss them. And new ones will find you and cherish you. And at last you'll know with surpassing certainty that only one thing is more frightening than speaking your truth. And that is not speaking.”