Hoda Kotb honored with Virginia Tech’s 2022 University Distinguished Achievement Award

Well, thank you. Thank you, President Tim Sands for that incredible introduction. And can I just say thank you guys so much for recognizing me with the University Distinguished Achievement Award. I feel like I am our Virginia Tech Ambassador. Okay. That's what I do. That's what my job is. One of my favorite moments, you guys, is when I look out on the plaza here at the Today Show where I work, and I see this, All I gotta see is one Hokie shirt. You know what I do? I do the same thing every time. Are you with me? Hoki, Hoki, Hoki, Hy. Techs, Techs, V.P.I., Sola-Rex, Sola-Rah. Polytechs - Vir-gin-ia. And then nobody knows the rest of the words. There's not one single person who knows the rest of the words. I love you guys. I have been sitting where you're sitting at this moment. I remember having my cap and gown on. I was hung over, but that's neither here nor there. Hopefully you're not. And I hope that you're soaking up this incredible moment. When I graduated from college, I did not have a job and I was scared. But I got some great advice throughout my life and it never fails. And here it is. Find what you love and figure out how to get paid for it. Find the job you love, and figure out how to get paid for it, okay? Don't take the job where you're only happy every other pay day on Thursday, two days a week is not enough days to be happy. Find what you love and figure out how to get paid for it. I just want to share a poem that I find so moving. So please take a minute and soak in this poem. Here we go. "Let no one keep you from your journey. No rabbi or priest, no mother who wants you to dig up treasures she misplaced. No father who won't let one lifetime be enough. No lover who measures their worth by what you might give up. No voice that tells you in the night that it can't be done. Let nothing dissuade you from seeing what you see or feeling the winds that make you want to dance alone or go where no one has yet to go. You are the only explorer, your heart the unreadable compass, your soul the shore of a promise too great to be ignored." Graduates, I wish you all the best. Congratulations.