Welcome, distinguished guests, faculty, staff, family and friends, to California Western's spring 2008 commencement ceremony. Your support today - as well as through the years leading up to this day - means more than you know, and surely much more than we have expressed.

During our first year at California Western, it seemed we all possessed two common qualities: conceit and hope. We were conceited enough to believe we were each going to be the best no matter what anyone said. We were each going to be the best.

And then we got our first semester grades and learned the real definition of a curve, and the value of humility. Suddenly conceit no longer carried us. It was like starting all over again. Really, law school is a lot like kindergarten. You learn a new language. A new way to ask questions. A new way to answer questions. The importance of naptime.

But where conceit threatened to sink us, hope kept us afloat. Hope kept us up at night, studying until dawn. Hope got us through that second semester so we could break through into our second year.

Conceit and hope, an almost necessary combination for a first year law student. But there was a third much more quiet quality present all along, one that will serve us well into our careers: Kindness. While law students at other schools may have hid books from each other, we shared them. When classmates were absent from class, we emailed them with notes for the day. And when it felt as though law school had become an insurmountable task, we urged each other to keep on keeping on.

Laughing it up at the California Western 2008 spring commencement.

Kindness not only flowed from our class, but also around our Cedar Street campus. Our faculty and staff were always available to help. Kim at the library was always ready with a book and a smile. Professors kept their doors open past posted office hours. One of the things I will probably miss most about law school is receiving emails from Julie Wellington and Diana Ortega-McGregory, reminding me about coffee and donuts with the dean. Sometimes the fastest way to a law student's heart is through her stomach.

Kindness often begets empathy. We were encouraged in our classes to get to know the story, the real story, behind the lawsuit. Who sued whom and why. It wasn't enough to know the elements. Why was Mrs. Palsgraf waiting for the train? As Professor Lynch said in Torts, we have to remember these lawsuits are about people. We began to see the cases from the eyes of the people who had been involved. That empathy will serve us well in the real world. Because after we pass the Bar, and we will all pass the Bar, those people will be our clients. We have been given a profound gift: the power to bring hope and positive change to our clients, the community, and the world. To borrow from author Alice Walker and poet June Jordan, "We are the ones we have been waiting for."

I have written California Western's column for the San Diego County Bar Association for more than two years. While I wrote about our various accomplishments, there was so much more than that going on with us, as law students and as people. Like how free pizza and "bar review" nights helped 24-Hour Fitness pay the bills. Who knew it would take having to climb three flights of stairs to the auditorium to get us in real shape?

While we worked at school and at the gym, we still knew how to have fun. For two years in a row, members of our class won the school talent show, and every year we have great representation at the CIP dodgeball tournament.

In Hawaii, we have a popular saying, "Hawaii No Ka Oi." It means that Hawaii's the best, but for me, California Western No Ka Oi. Class of 2008, I have been honored to be by your side as a classmate and colleague. You are already ahead of the curve when it comes to hope, empathy and kindness.

Thank you for an amazing ride.