Discurso - Maria Krane

"Barely a week ago, you arrived.

Barely a week, you have been in Omaha, the heart of the Heartland.

168 hours.

Discounting 42 hrs. you hopefully slept and 26 you spent eating, the balance is 100 hours.

In 100 hours, you did what some people do not in 10 years.

You spent:

11 hours in the classroom, brushing up on your English;

3 hours hearing lectures from Creighton’s faculty members;

1 hour attending Mass

6 hours delving into the agricultural past of the Midwest

1.5 hours touring North Omaha

3 hours visiting museums

2 hours touring the Old Market

2.5 hours bowling, laser tagging, go karting

2.5 hours visiting Creighton’s academic departments

3 hours shopping

1.5 hours exploring solar energy, recycling initiatives

2.5 hours seeing the Wizard of Oz

3 hours visiting Omaha’s companies or institutions

2 hours watching a baseball game

2 hours observing how a disaster is handled

and 2 hours visiting the zoo.

And I cannot even count the time you devoted to reflection, alone or as a group or as bloggers.

The rest of the time you spent going from one place to another.

Time.

I don’t know how familiar you are with Saint Exupery, but I think the quotation by the “Little Prince”--no matter how old it is, continues to be so relevant. 

“It is the time you have spent for your rose that makes your rose so important.” 

The 100 hours or more we spent with you made you very important to us. 

You will always have a home away from home at Creighton.  You will always remember that it was here that you

visited the past, discovered the present and explored the future—here in the Heartland and in yourselves."

Maria Krane

2013