The journey begins with a single step

BY NEALE MCDEVITT

It is a series of walks. Each Convocation ceremony begins with the fresh-faced graduates marching along the curved road from Redpath Hall to the massive white tent accompanied by the skirl of pipes. Then the platform party, in colourful academic regalia, walks down the hill from the Arts Building, behind another jaunty piper, before making its way to the stage.

But the centerpiece of each ceremony is an even shorter walk - the moment when proud students stride across that big stage to receive their diplomas from Chancellor Dick Pound.

The physical distance covered by graduating students during Convocation is short, but the symbolic voyage they have made during their stay at McGill is long. Many first walked through the Roddick Gates as talented teenagers bristling with promise but perhaps a little short on final product. Some had never lived away from home, often traveling halfway around the world just to embark upon this portion of their life's grand adventure.

And while they follow in the footsteps of thousands of grads before them as they walk across the stage, the path they will take from that point on is open to any and every possibility. The smiling young men and women posing for pictures in their gowns and mortarboards today will be tomorrow's law-makers, educators and artists. Like their fellow alumni before them, this class of graduating students will go on to cure diseases, build great cities, compose concertos and take that bold step into space where precious few dare tread.

Equipped with the knowledge, expertise and strength that have been forged during their journey through McGill, members of the Class of 2008 find themselves once again poised at the Roddick Gates. This time, they are looking out - to a world that can sometimes seem short on brilliance, vision and courage. A world that awaits their very next step.