Tom Hanks made a video appearance Saturday during Ohio’s Wright State University Department of Theatre, Dance and Motion Pictures virtual graduation ceremony to give the new grads a pep talk about entering the workforce in an uncertain time. Hanks said, “And 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 added: “You succeeded because of the aid and the love of others that are in your lives, without a doubt. But you have succeeded mostly because you and you alone chose to do so. You are the chosen ones.” Hanks reflected on how people would now view their lives in two parts: Before the coronavirus pandemic and after. And he applauded students for being able to reach a major milestone in the middle of it.
In the video, Hanks said the students have been “chosen” in many ways, including because of their ability to overcome the challenges of the times. “You are the chosen ones because of a fate unimagined when you began your Wright State adventures,” said Hanks. “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.” Hanks said the students are finishing their Wright State careers during “the great reset, the great reboot.”