Tom Hanks Addresses Graduating Class of an Ohio Institute with Relatable Message, Watch Video

To congratulate the graduating batch of Wright State University, Tom Hanks sent a special message of hope and encouragement. The class of 2020 is unable to have in-person graduation owing to the coronavirus lockdown.

Tom Hanks, who recently recovered from COVID-19, addressed the students in a video that was uploaded on the University’s official Twitter page. He commenced the remote discourse by calling out the to-be graduates ‘the chosen ones’.

The video opens to Hanks saying, “Congratulations to you chosen ones. I am calling you ‘chosen ones’ because you have been chosen in many ways. First, by the temperament and discipline, you’ve lived by. By the creative fires that are inside of you, and the instinctive lunges of your desires. There is something about you, all of you, in your upbringing and your background and your conscious memories and your ongoing mysteries. Something that has driven you to complete your courses and achieve your selected challenges and cross the rubicon of your time there.”

He continued by clarifying how the students will address the coronavirus situation in future. Hanks said, “You are the chosen ones because of a fate unimagined when you began your Wright State adventures. You started in the olden times, in a world back before the Great Pandemic of 2020. You will talk of those earlier years in your lives in just that way. Part of your lives will forever be identified as 'before’. In the same way, other generations tell time like 'that was before the war,' or 'that was before the internet,' or 'that was before Beyoncé.' The word 'before' is going to carry great weight with you.”

“I am congratulating you during the restructuring of time, the science, of our own national world... You have finished Wright State during ‘the great reset’ or ‘the great reboot’. When more is expected of you than just be Americans, you have had to become ‘good Americans’ who take on responsibilities and make ‘sacrifices that have saved lives’,” Hanks added.

He also explained what can be expected out of the unexpected. “You'll reference these past weeks for how many other weeks there are yet to come as during the pandemic, during the COVID-19, the lockdown, the quarantine, during the shelter-in-place.…And if we all remain you will move to ‘after’, after we take up our probable lives once again but ‘after’ will never look the same as life pre-coronavirus,” the actor added.

In conclusion, the Academy Award-winning actor told the students to hold on tight and keep up with their perseverance.

"You will be enlightened in ways your degree from Wright State never held in promise. You will have made it through a time of great sacrifice and great need. And no one will be more fresh to the task of restarting our normalcy than you chosen ones. The future is always uncertain, but we who celebrate what you have done, who celebrate all of your achievements, we are certain of one thing on this day - you will not let us down. Thank you. Congratulations. Way to go,” he signed off.

Tom Hanks’ monologue address was played on May 2 for the students during the Ohio College’s virtual graduation.

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