The fairy tales that have always touched the strings of the human heart have one thing in common: the happy ending. For dramatic effect, the speech you are about to hear begins with one. When we dare to venture into the past to find inspiration for the future, we are inevitably bound to face moments we would rather forget. Our repeated experience has shown that we are more apt to find depth in our seconds of misery and suffering than in years and years of mundane encounters. It is with this fact in mind that I ask you to imagine this room and this ceremony as it took place exactly five years ago, on Sunday, June 11, 1995. As I imagine it, the scene is no different than the one that unfolds before me today: an endless swarm of caps and gowns line the rows in front of the stage, cameras flash, beaming parents murmur in absolute delight, and temperatures are sweltering in the 90s. The images of this dessert in my memories are, unfortunately, the fruit of my imagination. That day, as my sister Lauren took the stage to begin a new chapter in her life, I lay at home, in bed, sick.....