(Editor's note: I was humbled to receive an honorary degree from West Virginia University Saturday. I was given a chance to speak briefly to the graduates and wanted to share with you my remarks.)
"Thank you, President Gee for this incredible honor, and thank you for your service to this University and our state.
Congratulations to my fellow Presidential Honorary Degree recipients David Riggle and Nick Kumbhani. And, of course, congratulations to all the graduates today and their families.
I am a radio talk show host with a two-hour show every day. It is probably a mistake to put me in front of a microphone. That is the bad news.
The good news is that I've been told to keep my remarks to no more than three minutes and I'm already one-minute in.
To our graduates-most of you left home to come to the University, and you made this your home. If you are like I was, this is where the arc of your life began to bend in a particular direction.
This is where you were challenged intellectually and socially. Where brilliant professors helped you form what Cardinal John Newman called, "a habit of mind...which lasts through life."
This place might be where you fell in love, fell out of love, and fell in love again...where you made friends for life...where you lived in a crappy apartment... maybe where you occasionally partied too hard one semester, but still managed a respectable 2.8 GPA.
Now you are anxious to leave, to go do remarkable things and have great adventures, to follow the curve of that arc that was formed here.
But know this: West Virginia University is home. You are always a Mountaineer.
You can come back, and you will. You'll bring your spouse, your children, your grandchildren, you will meet your friends here for homecoming and point out to them that crappy apartment where you lived.
You will be drawn back because your experiences here are embedded in your mind and your heart.