Although “it would be inappropriate for me to comment,” there is, Virginia, a life after Yale for both of us!

To have shared Yale with you has been my privilege, my challenge, my fun. Not every day is Halloween (Thank God!) but Yale has been a great personal, as well as academic, experience. These last four years have been years of subtle pressure – academic, financial, and human.

That Yale has not been drowned in self-pity is thanks largely to your ability to “accentuate the positive.” That capacity will serve you in good stead as you enter what is euphemistically called the “real” world.

There will be times when the reality of Yale will seem fore “real” in terms of values, satisfactions, and rewards than the world after Yale. I hope your Yale years will enable you to develop interests, discover opportunities, and shoulder responsibilities which you otherwise might have missed.

Cheers and good luck in whatever lies ahead.

Kingman Brewster, Jr.

4 April 1977