My Speech at Western Career College
MY WESTERN CAREER COLLEGE 2008 GRADUATION SPEECH
by JIMMY PALACIOS on 11/14/10
What is Passion? Passion is a strong feeling or desire and I can honestly stand here and say that I always had the passion to be creative and artistic. 
I'll always remember this one Christmas, when I was kid. My brother and I received matching sleeping bags with baseball, football & basketball figures all over them. I woke up Christmas morning at my Grandmother's house to the sight of my father sketching one of the baseball dudes from my sleeping bag. I was like "WOW Dad, that's so cool!" I was so amazed of his drawing talent and was hooked from that day on.
There I was, with my colored pencils and sketch pad sketching, drawing, coloring everywhere I went. I just couldn't get enough. Whether it was a simple dog, a little tree or my family whom were my favorite to draw… I could not wait to run and show my mom and dad my newest "masterpiece". They always had a big smile and encouraging words saying GREAT JOB – Keep it up! I had found my passion and I didn't even realize it.
All through my school years, all I wanted to do was take art & painting classes. Then along came the Computer. I didn't want anything to do with them but I knew it was time to take my developed skills and transfer them to the computer for the world to see. Today, you can't pull me away from my computer LOL.
In 2001, I made the decision to enroll into a vocational graphic design school and was amazed by all the applications the computer had to offer. Unfortunately my amazement came to an end when in the middle of our school year the institution closed their doors without any warning to their students. The only notification we received was a sign on the door with the words "Closed due to unforeseen operational circumstances." That left my friends and I all stunned and in shock. Shortly after that, I began working at Kaiser Santa Teresa. I was comfortable at the Hospital making descent money with full benefits, but I just wasn't satisfied. I was missing the passion.
I heard about Western Career College through a friend and decided to research it further. Not to mention the Western Career commercials ringing in my head, YOU CAN DO IT! Lol. So I enrolled and it turned out to be the greatest decision of my life. Where else can you take a break and get a massage? or bring your dog in for shots? How about walking down the hall to get my teeth cleaned? And ALL for free! LOL. This time around I was focused, determined & on a mission; I had the passion burning inside me to learn everything about a Graphic Web Designer this school had to offer and some. I wasn't working at the time so I would stay after class almost every day just to work on all my projects trying to perfect them all. During my time there I met some great staff, awesome classmates, & of course my instructors, Brian & Rodney O. And thanks to little websites called MySpace & Facebook, we are still connected LOL. So it's a great honor to make the dean's list and to be selected as an honor Roll student with a 4.0 GPA – I can't express how great and complete it feels when you are living in your passion. . I also just recently been blessed & accepted a full time position at Cisco.
Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion!
So I leave you with these words. Don't look at how far you have to go. Look at how far you have come. Every one of us has seeds of passion and greatness inside. Many times, we need others to come along and help stir them up along with our God gifted talents through encouraging words. So I tell you this, encourage one another daily. Always be looking around you to see who YOU might encourage with your words. We may never know how someone's entire life can change just through a simple, I believe in you or YOU CAN DO IT!
Thank you very much and Happy Fathers Day. God Bless .
