A hushed crowd at the Kibbie Dome grew utterly silent at Friday morning’s Convocation ceremony, as award-winning actor Sean Astin stepped into the persona of his “Lord of the Rings” character, Samwise Gamgee.
“It’s like in the great tales, Mr. Frodo, the ones that really matter,” Astin said softly into the microphone. “Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going, because they were holding on to something … that there’s some good left in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.”
The theme of Astin’s Convocation address was “choices.” He touched on long-term, aspirational choices, as well as the small choices students make day-to-day that could impact the lives of those around them. In keeping with the theme, he described how each of the pivotal roles of his acting career could be inspirational for first-year and returning students at the University of Idaho.
In the 1985 film, “The Goonies,” Astin played a young boy named Mikey Walsh, who goes on a treasure hunt after learning his parents’ home is in danger of being foreclosed. Mikey and his friends then embarked on an adventure to find pirate treasure and encountered meaningful experiences along the way.
Astin said many incoming students could relate to Mikey because of the adventure they are about to begin.
“Don’t forget to have a sense of adventure with everything you do,” Astin said. “I would encourage you to choose to be curious — above and beyond the normal curiosity that you have — be exceedingly curious in your life and it will take you great places.”
Astin went on to talk about his breakthrough role in the self-titled 1993 movie, “Rudy.” In the film, Astin plays a character that overcomes the adversary of societal judgment, and said students can learn from Rudy’s willingness to move forward in times of hardship.
“He was a character that did not have the physical attributes to play college football, and did not have the intellectual capacity — the study habits, the skills, the grades, the academic prowess. But, he refused to accept the limitations that other people put on him, and his ambition exceeded anyone’s wildest expectations,” Astin said. “So what I encourage you to do is choose to not live by others’ expectations of you — choose to exceed those expectations and choose to dream.”
Astin especially captured the audience’s attention when he began taking about the complexities of Samwise Gamgee in Lord of the Rings. He described how the film is a metaphor for good versus evil and right versus wrong.
He recognized that his character was the moral compass in the Academy Award-winning trilogy, and said each student can aspire to be like Samwise.
“Samwise is the archetype of the epitome of friendship, and loyalty, and bravery, and decency, and courage and righteousness,” Astin said. “I invite you to learn from Sam what I learned, and that is that those qualities are attainable.”
Astin touched on the social expectations that come with attending college, and said he learned long ago that the best way to conquer societal pressures is to learn from those around you by opening up to others.
“I encourage you to cultivate loyalty and friendship,” Astin said. “You have to sometimes seek out friendship, it might feel kind of lonely if you’re just now getting here and you don’t know anybody, I swear to you — I promise — there are at least 50 people sitting next to you here who you could become friendly with and maybe a couple you could have develop serious lifelong friendships with. So, I encourage you to choose friendship.”
But most of all, Astin’s message to UI was that each student should challenge themselves in and out of the classroom in order to life a more wholesome and memorable life.
“We all have a sense of our morality. We all have a sense of our belief system. But when you’re in college, you’re meant to challenge that — you’re meant to deepen it and explore it and really understand it, not just live based on the way you’ve been raised,” Astin said. “Hopefully on the other side of that experience you’ll come out an even more profound thinker, an even stronger citizen and human being.”
Amber Emery can be reached at [email protected]