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Treat life like a garden, Thomas College speaker says

BY DARLA L. PICKETT, Correspondent

WATERVILLE -- A national leader in landscape and garden design on Saturday urged Thomas College graduates to treat life as a garden, a landscape to be cultivated.

"See the world as a garden and you'll get out and smell the roses," speaker Julie Moir Messervy told more than 100 students who obtained bachelor and master degrees during afternoon commencement exercises at the Harold Alfond Athletic Center at the college.

Messervy, an author, lecturer and innovative leader in landscape and garden design theory and practice, and the principal of Julie Moir Messervy Design Studio in Saxtons River, Vt., told her listeners she was "humbled" to be a speaker at the college.

"I've done hundreds of lectures, but this is my very first commencement speech -- and depending on how this goes, it may be my last," she joked.

Messervy said she was surprised and impressed by Thomas College and "what a special gem it is." She said she spoke with students to prepare for the commencement address and was impressed with their love for the school and their future plans.

Of three students with whom she spoke, she said one was entering the Peace Corps, another was entering the U.S. Coast Guard and yet another had majored in marketing and was anxious to pursue a public relations career with a major sports franchise.

Messervy said the students described for her a college that was personal and cozy, one where professors give students their cell phone numbers and were ready at all hours to help them succeed.

The speaker asked members of the audience to close their eyes and picture their daydreams for the future. She likened this exercise to each student's first step in the future: "This is your first garden; college is another garden in your life."

She told them it was time to plant the first seeds of the future in their own garden of life, time to roll up their sleeves and get to work.

"You've got to get your hands dirty once in a while," she said. "We sit too much behind a screen."

Messervy received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the College on Saturday. Her books include "The Toronto Music Garden: Inspired by Bach" (2009); "Home Outside: Creating the Landscape You Love" (2009) and "Outside the Not So Big House," with architect Sarah Susanka (2008).

She earned a bachelor of arts degree from Wellesley College and master of architecture and master in city planning degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Her design work and books have been featured in publications such as the New York Times, Boston Globe and Washington Post, Elle Décor and Vogue.

Other speakers included Darrell Alexander, a graduate from Texas who logged 1,000 points for the Thomas College basketball team. He joked about the professors, the students' "lumberjack and landscaping skill" and called the college a "place to build relations" with both fellow students and professors.

Graduate Jayne H. Sullivan, a mother from Troy who held down a full-time job and, with her husband's help, raised her children, while obtaining her degree.

She commended the efforts of many Thomas College students who are juggling a similar workload: "It is definitely not for wimps."

Also speaking was Brian S. Hodges, a graduate of the University of Maine in Orono and deputy commissioner of the State Department of Economic and Community Development from West Gardiner, who obtained who his master's degree in business administration from Thomas College this year.

Hodges applauded his fellow graduates for their tenacity and urged them to consider continuing for their master's degree now, instead of waiting 25 years as he had.

"Perseverance reaps great rewards," he said

Paula C. Lunder of Waterville received an honorary doctor of Humane Letters, and Peter H. Lunder of Waterville received an honorary Doctor of Science in Business Administration. During the past eight years, more than 87 students have received financial assistance through the couple's Lunder Scholars program at Thomas College.