My graduation in cinema was in September 21. I couldn’t imagined that it would be in person considering the gravity of the covid-19 in Brazil, my country. But it happened with all the healthy care and I had the honour of being the speaker of this amazing night. And this was the text that I made:
“Goodnight. I believe that most of the people here still don't even believe that this moment is happening. At least it was like that for me. In a moment of utter hopelessness, this event was a rainbow after the storm. Or even better, the blooming flowers of the first day of spring after a cold winter. Have you ever heard of the Hero's Journey? It's like a narrative formula that we see in many movies, like Star Wars, Marvel movies and DC movies. In this narrative, the character goes on his journey to resolve a conflict, and there is always that moment when things get even more difficult and he thinks about giving up.
And then he finds an internal strength much greater than he imagined and thus manages in the last act to overcome his greatest adversities. These last two years have been a big hurdle for all of us, and getting here took a lot of resilience. As a film major, I'd like to paraphrase here Gwen Stacy's speech in Amazing Spider-Man 2: “I know everyone thinks we're immortal. It was supposed to be like that. What makes life valuable is that it doesn't last forever. What makes it precious is that it ends. I know that now more than ever. Today is special to remind us that time is luck. So don't waste time living someone else's life. Make yours count, fight for what you care about. Whatever it is. Because even if we have doubts, there is no better way to live.” And then she ends the speech by talking about hope.
And in the moment we live in today, hope is what moves us. Today this place is full of survivors, people who struggled hard to graduate, and graduate during a pandemic. People who won this battle but who also lost loved ones along the way, which became even more difficult. We thank all teachers for being our teachers during this journey, our families and friends for being our safe haven. Without you guiding and motivating us it would not be possible to win our heroes journeys. So, congratulations, heroes and heroines for this night, which is all ours!”
I hope this words can inspire you too!