The message was simple: Grow up.
That's what keynote speaker James Underwood told the nearly 500 graduates gathered under threatening skies at Union College's 212th commencement ceremony Sunday.
“Never stop trying to be fully adult — even if it takes you until you're 50, like it did for me,” said Underwood, the college's interim president.
Speaking to the sea of black-clad students, some of whom were smoking cigars, Underwood advised them to learn how to listen to an inner voice “because sometimes it barely whispers.”
This week, Underwood will resume teaching history at the college; Stephen Ainlay will become the college's 18th president on Thursday.
Graduate Brian Selchick, 22, said he enjoyed Underwood's address, even though he said he wasn't sure becoming “fully adult” was possible.
For the Menands native, who will intern with an investment bank in Washington, D.C., then return to Union to pursue a master's degree in business, the graduation marked the end of at least part of his youth.
“Where else can a guy be a rugby player and then sing with an a cappella group?” he said of his time in college.