Cheney tells grads to look for 'unexpected opportunities'

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Vice President Dick Cheney told University of Missouri graduates on Sunday to look for "the unexpected opportunities" in life.

Cheney said his unexpected opportunity put him into the nation's second-highest office. Three years ago, he had retired from public service but agreed to head George W. Bush's search for a Republican vice presidential running mate. Winnowing the field, Bush picked Cheney.

"If you're ever asked to head up an important search committee -- say yes," Cheney said, drawing laughter. "That decision three years ago set me on a path ... this seems to be a pattern in my life: the unexpected opportunities."

Cheney was keynote speaker for the graduation of about 250 students from the university's College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. He mused that the graduates will eventually miss lectures and labs, along with a local source of sustenance, "Shakespeare's Pizza ... all those hours circling the campus looking for a place to park."

The vice president noted that 28 students from the Columbia campus who are members of the National Guard and reserves were activated to serve in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

"They can always be proud of their role in a great victory for the civilized world and the cause of freedom," he said. "Your generation will do great things for America and change this world for the better."

'False starts'

The college's graduates hold an array of degrees, from forestry to agricultural economics to hotel and restaurant management.

But Cheney told the freshly graduated their paths may veer far from their intended careers. He had no ambition for public office upon graduating from the University of Wyoming and might have wound up as a teacher.

Cheney went to Washington, eventually serving in the Nixon and Ford White Houses, as congressman from Wyoming and as secretary of defense for Bush's father.

Sometimes there are "false starts," Cheney said, and then shared his own: before attending the University of Wyoming, he had started college at Yale.

"Asked to leave isn't quite accurate," Cheney said of his brief time at Yale, adding that he was "asked to leave -- twice. The second time they said, 'Don't come back.'"

"When that happens, don't let your doubts get the best of you," he urged.

"America is still the country of the second chance," Cheney said. "Most of us end up needing one."

Thomas Payne, dean of the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, led the graduates in a chant of the school's nickname: "M-I-Z! Z-O-U! MIZZOU!"

Payne then told the graduates "It's OK to come back" -- but "don't show up on Monday. Even if you don't come back here formally, be an active alumnus."

Payne said some will become financially wealthy in their careers, and he reminded the graduates that new college buildings were under construction with naming rights still unsold. With a hefty donation, Payne quipped, "we can name it after you."

First things first: one graduate had written in white tape on top of her black mortarboard cap: "NEED A JOB."

Among the graduates were Garrett Riekhoff and Cara Copenhaver, both 21, who will have another big day in about a month: they're getting married.

"A lot of people on campus are jealous that we have the vice president speaking at our graduation. I think I'll actually remember who was my commencement speaker 21 years from now," said Copenhaver, an agricultural journalism major from Lexington.

Riekhoff, an agricultural economics major from Higginsville, said his college years yielded a useful life lesson: "I definitely figured out in four years of school that costs can exceed income."

------

On the Net:

Vice President Dick Cheney: http://www.whitehouse.gov/vicepresident/

University of Missouri: www.missouri.edu