Thank you Northeastern University for allowing me the honor to speak to you, the class of 2025, and thank you President Aoun for inviting me.
Over the past decade or so, Northeastern has hosted commencement speeches from a very impressive array of influential speakers: former secretaries of state John Kerry and Colin Powell, former CDC Director Rochelle Walensky ... men and women with seriously important jobs and positions.
And now, me, the 31-year-old Brit who switched majors three times.
On a serious note, it's a pleasure for me to be here with you today.
My name is Elliot Grainge, and it was just 12 years ago that I moved into my dorm at IV, International Village.
And after four long winters in Boston, I can promise you all I will never be cold ever again.
I would go to shows just here at the House of Blues.
I'd wander down Huntington Avenue to the Boston Common to feed the ducks and once, just once, I got stood up on a date at a sushi restaurant on Washington Street where sympathetic servers took pity on a hungry, embarrassed freshman desperate for some female company and a spicy tuna tempo.
I was 19.
But I love this city, and I love this school.
