I greet you this afternoon as if I would greet you if I were in my own home country of Aotearoa, New Zealand, by acknowledging all of you, by acknowledging the people of this land, and by celebrating your achievements which we will all benefit from.
I also wanted to begin by introducing myself, in part because I take nothing for granted.
In fact, recently I was asked to present at a course for policy makers at another institution whose name I'm told I should not mention while on these hallowed grounds.
Let's, for argument's sake, call it MARVID.
At the conclusion of the program, the organisers asked students for individual comments on each session, including my own, and in the interest of generous transparency, I was then sent that feedback.
As I scrolled through the results, I noticed a note at the bottom of the form from an attendee that simply read, I appreciated the session, although I didn't know who she was.
And so, hello, my name is Jacinda Ardern, and I was for a time the Prime Minister of New Zealand.
I'm not sure I see that as adequate explanation for my presence here today, though.
Even as I look over the sea of phases and the unusual hats, which no one has quite managed to explain to me, I still find myself wondering, how did I end up here?
And that's because politics never felt like it was a given for me, and leadership most certainly didn't.
