Former first lady Laura Bush, wife of former President George W. Bush, recently urged graduating students at High Point University in North Carolina to step up to the challenges they will face in their futures and careers.
“Whatever you choose to do, don’t be afraid to take a risk or change course,” said Bush, whose husband, the 43rd president, served from 2001-09.
George Bush is the son of the 41st president, George H.W. Bush, and the brother of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who served as the state’s 43rd governor from 1999-2007.
Laura Bush told the 800 graduating students May 5 that when she and her husband were starting their lives together in 1977 in Midland, Texas, “we were ready for a nice, quiet, normal life.”
“Five years later, we had twins, Ten years later, we were living in Washington, D.C., helping George’s father get elected president,” she said.
“Fifteen years later, we were in Dallas where George was running the Texas Rangers baseball team. Twenty years later, we were in Austin when George was governor,” she continued.
“Twenty-five years later, we were in the White House in a nation changed by the attacks of September 11. Thirty years later, we were finishing a second term,” she said.
Bush said that for year 35, they plan to be in Dallas, “but you never know.”
Bush told the audience of graduates, educators, families, friends and media that her father-in-law said any definition of a successful life must include service to others.
“That principle has governed not only his life but his children’s and grandchildren’s as well,” she said.
The former first lady graduated in 1968 from Southern Methodist University in Dallas with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and earned her master’s degree in library science from the University of Texas at Austin Graduate School of Library Science.
She taught elementary school in Houston and also worked as a school librarian.
Her marriage to George W. Bush in 1977 was followed in 1981 by the birth of their twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna.
Reflecting on her almost 35 years of marriage to the former president, Bush focused on the changes, challenges and rewards.
“It wasn’t the life we expected, but the twists and turns along the way gave it meaning and richness and value,” she said.
Editor’s note: I attended because my son was among the graduates.
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