Last year, I delivered the graduation speech for Oregon State University's School of Psychological Science, and I think the message is even more relevant today.

Three lessons on purpose, persistence, and community can help you navigate life's next chapter. From psychological research, we know that facts and figures are less impactful than personal stories, so I’ll pepper in examples from my own experiences along the way.

Think back to why you decided to become a psychology major. Was it because of a desire to help people? An insatiable curiosity about human nature? To make a difference in people’s lives? For me, it was all of the above.

I have been interested in psychology ever since I was born. I was born with Moebius syndrome, a disability characterized by facial paralysis and the inability to move my eyes from side to side. At an early age, I understood that the way I communicated was unusual, that people were confused by my lack of facial expression. I became fascinated with communication and social interaction.

These interests led me to study psychology as a college student. Toward the end of my bachelor’s I set out to do my very first college term paper on Moebius syndrome. I showed up at the library expecting to find pages and pages of answers, but I discovered there was only a handful of psych papers published on it! This was bad news for two reasons: First, I didn’t have enough sources to write my term paper. Second, my chosen field had not included people like me.

I realized I was at a crossroads. I could give up and choose another path, or I could start developing the psychological knowledge in this area.

I chose the latter. I knew that I had the unique........

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