Dawn Staley tells USC graduates to find their passion, overcome disappointment (+ video)

The crowd filling Colonial Life Arena Saturday afternoon reminded University of South Carolina President Harris Pastides of the crowds this season at women’s basketball games.

“Once you leave here today, it’ll be like putting on a new pair of sunglasses. Things will simply look and feel different to you,” Pastides told the crowd of more than 1,300 soon-to-be graduates, along with thousands of their family members and friends who filled the arena to witness the end of their college careers and the commencement of the next phase of their lives. “Nostalgia will make USC appear different to you in the years to come, and you’ll look different to us, too.

“You’ll carry yourselves differently with your degree – steadier, more confident, maybe a bit more cocky you’ll be.”

Caroline Horton, 25, and Nidah Hussain, 24, have spent nearly a quarter of their lives at USC – six years and eight years, respectively. Waiting to receive their masters degrees in biomedical engineering, they felt a mix of relief and an anxious anticipation of what will come next.

“I came from a house divided between doctors and engineers, and I wanted to do both,” Hussain said. “When I found out there was a way to do both, I got really excited.”

Hussain wants to work in the private sector with companies designing surgical instruments and implants. She already has three internships lined up. Horton will continue to search for jobs, hopefully in the field of designing medicine delivery devices.

Before Horton and Hussain would hear their names called and walk across the stage as official graduates, USC women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley would tell them in her commencement address to discover their passions, pursue them, and to be unafraid to adjust themselves and their circumstances when they face inevitable disappointments in life.

“Looking back, I realize how finding my passion early offered me a road map, gave me my life direction, and in a lot of ways it kept me focused,” Staley said. “If your passion eludes you and in about 30 minutes you receive a degree for which you are not passionate, and you’re almost sure you wasted your parents’ money, you’ll never find a job, and you’re scared to death, don’t be.

“Time is on your side. But you have to be bold in your pursuit to find the thing you love.”

She recounted her path to becoming a professional basketball player, three-time Olympian and respected coach.

It took some time for her to find her passion and pursue it with success.

But along the way, her mother gave her a piece of valuable wisdom that Staley passed on to the graduating class of 2015: “This is your life. If you don’t like it, do something about it.”

This story was originally published May 9, 2015 at 6:39 PM with the headline "Dawn Staley tells USC graduates to find their passion, overcome disappointment (+ video)."