Delusional Enough to Dream

��, Students

Kevoni Neely ’25 delivered the undergraduate student address at ��'s 133rd Commencement Ceremony.

Good afternoon, Class of 2025, faculty, family, and friends.

Today, we celebrate not just an achievement but a transition, a moment where we take everything we’ve learned at Puget Sound and step into the world beyond. Over the years, we’ve challenged ourselves, expanded our perspectives, and grown into the people we are today. As we look to new opportunities and uncertainties, I want to remind each of you: we are ready.

When I first stepped onto this campus, I only knew one thing: I wanted to be involved in anything and everything. I didn’t care if I had the experience or skills. I just knew I wanted to be part of something.

So I joined RDG, despite never having danced before. I stepped onto that stage, totally out of my element. I joined the cheer team, even though I had never cheered a day in my life. Suddenly, I was flipping signs, shouting chants, and lifting people into the air, hoping they wouldn’t fall. I joined a sorority without even knowing the Greek alphabet.

And somehow, it worked out. Not because I suddenly became an expert, but because I believed I could do it—and because I was surrounded by people who made space for me, who reminded me I belonged, even when I doubted myself.

That’s what Puget Sound has been for so many of us: a place to take risks, dive into the unknown, and discover that we’re more capable than we thought. A place that taught us thT being “delusional”—believing in ourselves even when the odds aren’t in our favor, isn’t a weakness, but a strength.

The most defining moment of that delusion came when I decided to run for ASUPS President. I sat at my desk, staring at the application, the blinking cursor daring me to press submit. I kept thinking, Am I really the right person for this? But something inside me said, Do it anyway. I told a few friends, expecting polite nods. Instead, I got real encouragement. They said, “You’d be great at this.” And for the first time, I believed them. And it worked out. I accomplished my goals and became the leader I wanted to be.

And now, as we step into a world that is unpredictable and often overwhelming, I hope we carry that same belief with us. Because if Puget Sound has taught us anything, it’s that we are adaptable, courageous, and capable of thriving in even the most unexpected places.

One of those places, for me, was my study abroad in Ghana.

I hadn’t planned for it. I didn’t grow up imagining I’d walk through the streets of Accra or learn how to bargain in markets or speak Twi. But I went. I showed up. And in doing so, I discovered parts of myself I didn’t know were waiting to be found, my independence, my vulnerability, my capacity for connection beyond language or culture. It was disorienting at times, and beautiful, and humbling. Ghana taught me that discomfort can be a kind of teacher, that being out of place can sometimes put you more in touch with who you really are.

We’re entering a world that is shifting, and change is constant. But we are not passive observers. We are participants, people who shape the world rather than simply exist within it.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “This is our opportunity. This is our great challenge… to be participants, involved participants, in the struggle to make brotherhood and justice realities in our day and in our age.”

That challenge is now ours. And the world we dream of may not exist yet, but that has never stopped people like us. To be hopeful, to be engaged, to believe in justice and unity in the face of division, that takes courage. That takes imagination. That takes just enough delusion to believe that change is possible.

And history isn’t made by those who accept the world as it is. It’s made by those who dare to imagine something better, and who are relentless and delusional enough to make it real.

Puget Sound has given us more than an education. It has given us a foundation.

Think back to who you were when you arrived here. Maybe you were eager, maybe uncertain. Maybe you had a plan, or maybe you didn’t. But all of us changed here.

In classrooms, we learned to think critically, to question, to listen. Outside of them, we built something deeper: a community. We supported each other through long nights, hard exams, and moments of doubt, and celebrated each other in moments of joy. Puget Sound isn’t just a school. It’s a home. And that home is made up of the people sitting around you right now.

We’ve learned not just how to succeed, but how to care. How to advocate. How to take responsibility for the spaces we’re in. That’s what makes this education powerful, it’s not just what we know. It’s what we do with what we know.

So as we leave this place, we carry not just degrees but the responsibility to use what we’ve learned. Whether we go into law, medicine, education, business, art, or public service, we go forward as listeners, thinkers, and leaders.

And wherever life takes us, we don’t go alone. Puget Sound goes with us. This place, this community, will always remind us of where we started, who believed in us, and the values that will continue to shape us.

The road ahead won’t always be easy. There will be doubt, and moments when the problems feel too big. But we’ve faced challenges before, and every time, we’ve responded with courage, curiosity, and the belief that things can be better.

So I’ll leave you with this: will you be delusional enough to build the world you want to see?

Because whether we realize it or not, we’ve already begun.

We are the next generation of leaders, thinkers, and changemakers.

Let’s be bold. Let’s be hopeful. And if we have to be, let’s be just delusional enough to believe in a better world, so we can create it.

Congratulations, Class of 2025. We are ready.

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