BY: MELISSA ALBRIGHT OF BRIDGEWATER COLLEGE
JUNE 9, 2005
OPENING ADDRESS AT INTERCOLLEGIATE RENAISSANCE GAMES SPEECH CONTEST

Today is a significant day. It is one that marks the beginning of a challenge, cultivates ambition, in hopes to accomplish a great endeavor. June 9 is a day in which success is inevitable. Take for instance U.S. boxing heavy weight champ James Jackson Jeffries, who in 1899 knocked out Britain’s Bob Fitzsimmons to become the World Heavy Weight Champion. World renowned cartoon Donald Duck debuted in 1934. And among the significant achievements that occurred on June 9 was the launching of the George Washington in 1959. It was the first nuclear submarine carrying Polaris missiles.

In regards to success great abolitionist Frederick Douglass observed that far too often success is desired without challenge. He believed that the masses wanted rain without thunder and flowers without planting seeds. He concluded however that power almost never comes without struggle. From this we can gather that anything worth having is definitely worth working hard for, which leads to ambition.

Ambition is propelled by passion and fueled by an uncanny fervor. Ambition makes the impossible possible, shattering the intangible into pieces of reality that all of us can hold on to. It turns stumbling blocks in to stepping stones making the climb to success one that isn’t so hard on the knees.

Everyday we endeavor to become better, stronger, and wiser. Each team represented here has a common thread that inextricably links them to the other. That common thread is a goal. That goal is to win. But regardless of what the ballots and numbers may reveal the mere fact that each of us accepted the challenge with ambition with the purpose to fulfill this endeavor speaks volumes. It suggests that the goal of winning has already been accomplished.

In this day in time when young people trading in books for guns is not unheard of, it is great endeavors such as this one that deserves recognition. Be it directly or indirectly the strides that each of us make and have made has laid the foundation of community here at the University of Rhode Island. We have embarked on a journey whose truth resides not only in academics and athletics but more importantly within each of us.

On this day June 9, 2005 we have begun a great work. It is one that will leave indelible prints in our sentimental sand long after this endeavor has been accomplished. We are in superior company. Jacques Cartier June 9, 1534, was the first to sail in to the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. On this day and throughout this weekend we shall leave our own legacies and create traditions. I leave you with this final thought, let the significance of yesterday serve as a ray of hope for today inevitably leading to a brighter tomorrow by way of challenge and ambition to accomplish a great endeavor.