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SPEECH OF THE PRESIDENT ASSOC. PROF. KRASIMIR NEDYALKOV, PHD AT THE GRADUATION CEREMONY OF THE CLASS OF 2022
11 November 2022
Dear graduates,Dear Academic leadership,
Dear guests,
Colleagues, lecturers and employees of VFU “Chernorizets Hrabar”,
Welcome to the solemn ceremony for the awarding of diplomas to the students of the Class of 2022 who have successfully completed their studies.
Thank you for honouring this celebration of the spirit, of the University, with your presence. For the 27th time in a row today, we report our contribution to the nation's human capital, which already numbers over 44,000 valuable professionals from various fields and professional areas. With pride, we will once again note that many of our graduates are already in prestigious positions in the economic and social life at home and abroad. Today, 468 new bachelors and 449 masters will close another important page in the book of life.
Dear Graduates,
This event will also be memorable for you because it coincides with the 100th anniversary of the holiday of the National Enlighteners and the 160th anniversary of the Slavic Bulgarian History. Paisiy's work is a kind of programme of the Bulgarian Revival, but addressed to the present, it provides valuable supports from the past in order to outline the contours of an optimistic vision for the future of our people.
Dear graduates, enter this future with the enthusiasm inherent to your youth, but also with the professionalism and innovation that have become the emblem of our university.
Represent with dignity the name of the educational institution that gave you knowledge and self-confidence about it. The diploma you receive today gives you access to new professional horizons, develop constantly, be bright and noticeable individuals.
Today, more than ever, society needs you, your sensitivity, your bold ideas, your uncompromising search for answers.
The monk from Hilendar bequeathed us criteria for a value system that would save our people in difficult, dramatic moments. Wherever the road takes you, whatever life offers you, be proud that you are the heirs of a great family and the homeland is a very special place for you.
I keep coming back to this little book because it is the message of the 21st century as well. Paisiy bequeathed us a new attitude towards humans and their individual commitment to the processes of time. Do not give in to the suggestion that Bulgaria is a small country on which nothing depends, because the present has its own historical course, which is guided by the common efforts of each of us.
The Bulgarian has more than one real proof of their greatness. It has a history that is the work of the ancestors, and the present is created by the joint efforts of each of us. Remember the past, but with an eye to the future! Be creative with new spiritual quests, adequate to the time in which we live!
For 160 years now, Paisiy has been warning that the interruption of the dialogue between generations leads to timelessness and forgetfulness. His optimism for the future is based on the belief that Bulgarians have moral and ethical qualities that are a real asset. Multiply that wealth.
Technology and automation are destroying many jobs, so try to expand your vocabulary and treat it like your bank account. Give it a lot of attention and try to accumulate dividends. The goal is not to enhance your eloquence, the goal is to be able to express yourself as fully and precisely as possible in one word. This will be your balance. To keep society moving forward, your generation faces a challenge. To revive the sense of purpose.
Dear Graduates,
It is significant that your graduation is in the year in which Bulgaria celebrates 100 years since the day when the then Ministry of Public Education and its minister Stoyan Omarchevski defined 1 November as a day to honour the memory of the great Bulgarians - far and near builders of modern Bulgaria.
Our first concern is to turn the eyes of our youth to everything valuable and bright from our past, so that they can draw from it cheerfulness and confidence, strength and impulse for activity and creativity. This message of the Minister of Education still makes us think about the meaning of this all-Bulgarian holiday. Usually on this day we all wish you success. But today, when the ideals of the enlighteners seem to fade into existence, and young people replace the book with the Internet, we live with the feeling that success, for its own sake, seems to give way to spirituality and enlightenment. The time is critical, heavy and painful. The enlighteners again invite us to wake up before it is too late, not to succumb to lies and manipulations. Let us not wait for someone else to wake us up, but let us be awake. Let us believe that once again everything is in the hands of an awakened people. Bulgaria is changing and must change, it is looking for new ideas, discussing new solutions. Problems are spoken out loud, but we often stop there. Be active change makers. Take your rightful place among the modern enlighteners and lead your peers to a meaningful life that seeks the good for all, appreciates the dignity of the person and the nation!
I would like to express my and the academic leadership's gratitude to our lecturers, our dedicated partners, our spiritual companions, who I would rightly count among today's enlighteners.
Addressing the parents, I will emphasise that they have every reason to be proud of their children, who today receive their diplomas from a prestigious university in one of the most sought-after specialties. May they be safe and sound, to get satisfaction from what they do and have the chance to live in a peaceful world, better than the one that you and I leave for them.
Dear Graduates,
I want to end my address to you with a thought of Joseph Brodsky: "The world is imperfect. There never was and never will be a golden age. The only thing that will happen to the world is that it will become bigger, more populated, but it will not increase in size. No matter how fairly the person you choose divides the pie, the world will not increase in size, and the portions will certainly get smaller. In the light of this statement, or rather in the dark, you have to rely on your home cooked meal i.e. to govern the world by yourself, or at least that part of it which is accessible to you and lies within the limits of your possibilities. "
Dear young colleagues,
Welcome to the world of the higher education practitioners! Chances are in front of you to choose the professional path to follow. My life has taught me that one always has the right to choose, but one does not always have the courage to make the right choice and bear the responsibility for it. Be brave! I want to wish you all to be healthy, to fulfill your wishes and dreams, to find support and satisfaction from what you have achieved, and to have the chance and well-being in the coming years. Good luck in each of the vocations you will recognise as your own, to be happy people!