{"id":264148,"date":"2026-05-09T00:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T00:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/264148\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T00:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T00:04:09","slug":"beginning-is-the-hardest-part","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/264148\/","title":{"rendered":"Beginning is the hardest part"},"content":{"rendered":"

Along the road to pursuing his dream and life craft of acting, Danny Ram\u00edrez has faced a litany of experiences he didn\u2019t feel ready for\u2014where he felt out of his depth, underprepared, and uncertain, even sensed he didn\u2019t belong. Yet he pushed through the hesitancy and self-doubt, stayed in the room, and learned as he went\u2014decisions that have led him to discover \u201cthe magic around the corner\u201d and to success as a film and television star, and now as a producer and director.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ram\u00edrez, the commencement speaker for two University of Miami undergraduate ceremonies on Friday, urged new graduates to push past fear and self-doubt and to just begin\u2014especially when they don\u2019t feel ready.<\/p>\n

In a morning ceremony, Ram\u00edrez addressed 583 baccalaureates from the School of Architecture; School of Communication; School of Education and Human Development; and the Phillip and Patricia Frost School of Music. At an afternoon session, he shared remarks with more than 700 students graduating from the College of Arts and Sciences, including the Division of Continuing and International Education.<\/p>\n

\"Commencement\u201cBeginning is the hardest part. It\u2019s the moment where you\u2019re out of your depth, where you think you haven\u2019t earned it, where you know just enough to understand how much you don\u2019t know, where, at any second, it feels like someone\u2019s going to figure out that you\u2019re not ready to be there,\u201d said Ram\u00edrez, whose acting career began in television, in series such as \u201cThe Gifted,\u201d \u201cOrange Is the New Black,\u201d and \u201cOn My Block.\u201d He has since landed roles in popular feature films and recently launched his own production company.<\/p>\n

Discipline, hard work, focus, and resilience are essential for any successful career, Ramirez told the new graduates, noting that they all had certainly applied these traits to reach this milestone. Yet these characteristics don\u2019t explain how anything actually begins\u2014\u201cthat first move, that spark, the moment of combustion, the small explosion that gets something going.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe neglect to investigate how we begin. If we do, too often we usually hear it in a negative way\u2014’that person starts a lot of things\u2019\u2014as if beginning were a flaw,\u201d Ram\u00edrez said. \u201cThe fear of beginning has kept more ideas, more talent, more potential inside people\u2019s heads than anything else because beginning requires something most people try to avoid\u2014humility and curiosity. But most important, the willingness to move before you feel like you are ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ram\u00edrez told the graduates he knew that feeling well and emphasized that \u201cit\u2019s not a flaw in the process\u2014it is the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CommencementBorn in Chicago and raised in Miami, Ram\u00edrez is the son of parents from Colombia and Mexico. A graduate of Miami Coral Park Senior High School, he has always spoken with pride about his heritage and culture and how privileged he feels to represent the Hispanic communities through his work.<\/p>\n

As a youngster, he was an avid Hurricanes fan, yet soccer was his passion, and he devoted countless hours to the game throughout high school. He envisioned a future in the sport and left for Oglethorpe University in Georgia to continue playing at the college level\u2014yet an injury sidelined him right at the start.<\/p>\n

While standing on the sideline during a practice, leaning on crutches, a production assistant from a film crew wandered up and asked if anyone wanted to be an extra.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said \u2018yes.\u2019 I needed the money. It didn\u2019t feel like a big decision at the time, but looking back, that was the first real start,\u201d Ram\u00edrez remembered. \u201cBecause something clicked that day. Internally, clarity started to take shape. I wanted to act.\u201d<\/p>\n

He transferred back home, began taking classes at Miami Dade College and later enrolled \u00a0at an engineering school in New York City, but the acting bug continued to pester.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I made a trade. I replaced my schoolwork with reading every acting book I could find. My GPA plummeted, but my understanding of what I wanted to do had never been clearer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"CommencementHe started again, this time at the Tisch School of the Arts, a prestigious performing arts school in New York City. Waiting for his audition, he felt suddenly overwhelmed, surrounded by other budding actors with far more experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThirty minutes into waiting, I broke. I started crying. Sitting there thinking, \u2018What am I doing here?\u2019 I was about to leave, and then they called my name. So, I walked in, still emotional, still unsure, and, with tears in my eyes, started the monologue,\u201d he recalled. A few days later, he received the email that he\u2019d been accepted to the school.<\/p>\n

Ram\u00edrez shared another pivotal moment in 2022, years after he\u2019d broken into the acting world.<\/p>\n

He was in Iowa working on a small film when he got an audition call for \u201cTop Gun: Maverick.\u201d He was needed in California immediately but didn\u2019t have the money and was terrified of flying.<\/p>\n

He willed himself to get on the plane and flew to Los Angeles, then learned that the role required flying an F\/A-18 fighter jet. He was terrified, yet talking to director Joe Kosinski and the film\u2019s star, Tom Cruise, realized this was the dream opportunity he had been waiting for.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that moment, I realized something I hadn\u2019t before. The two \u2018beginnings\u2019 I had been most afraid of were now happening at the same time\u2014acting and flying. From the outside, it looks like luck, but it wasn\u2019t,\u201d Ram\u00edrez said. \u201cIt was the same decision again: begin before you\u2019re ready, begin even when you\u2019re afraid, and stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ram\u00edrez told the new graduates that the feeling of \u201cnot belonging\u201d doesn\u2019t go away.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t graduate out of it, and you don\u2019t earn your way past it. If anything, it shows up more as more opportunities arise. The only thing that changes is whether you leave when you feel it,\u201d he said. \u201cBeginning is us at our most human. It\u2019s where everything is new, where there is uncertainty, where we negotiate with fear in real time. And before we ever get to discipline or resilience, we have to begin\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CommencementAt the afternoon ceremony, University President Joe Echevarria presented Ram\u00edrez with a Doctor of Arts, honoris causa, \u201cfor his disciplined artistry, commitment to meaningful storytelling, and spirited representation that inspires others to follow his lead.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president celebrated the class of 2026 for \u201chaving completed something demanding and worthwhile\u201d and recalled his own graduation from the University in 1978.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou gained knowledge, but just as importantly, you developed habits\u2014discipline, responsibility, resilience, and the ability to follow through. How do I know? From my own experience,\u201d Echevarria said. \u201cI walked off this campus without having everything mapped out, but with the skills honed right here that turned out to matter far more than I realized at the time.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Melissa Neglio, a graduate of the School of Education and Human Development and the student speaker for the first ceremony on Friday, reflected on her academy journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe University of Miami didn\u2019t just teach me in the classroom. It helped me create my future, turning dreams that once felt abstract into something tangible,\u201d Neglio said. \u201cI didn\u2019t arrive here with everything figured out. But somewhere along the way, through internships, late nights, leadership roles, and moments of doubt, shy me stopped waiting for permission. And started creating her own path.<\/p>\n

\"Commencement\u201cThis community does not let you shrink. It challenges you. It believes in you, sometimes before you believe in yourself. And it pushes you toward who you are meant to become,\u201d\u00a0Neglio added.<\/p>\n

Maria Angelica Petit, a graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences and student speaker for the afternoon ceremony, shared a message of resilience. Just months before she was due to start college, Petit was involved in a boating accident that resulted in a severe hand injury, multiple surgeries, and nearly two years of physical therapy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat once felt like a setback became the reason I stayed in Miami\u2014and ultimately, it was one of the greatest blessings of my life,\u201d Petit said. \u201cBecause if everything had gone according to my plan, I might never have ended up exactly where I was meant to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHere, I became someone I never thought I could be because of the way people here made me feel\u2014seen, supported, and capable, even when I didn\u2019t see it in myself,” she said.\u00a0\u201cWe became who we are because of the people, the moments, and the choices we made when we didn\u2019t feel ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CommencementStudents graduating from the School of Education and Human Development and the School of Communication at Friday morning\u2019s ceremony were reluctant to leave the South Florida area after an enriching four years at the University.<\/p>\n

Alexandria Cinquemani was graduating with a degree in exercise physiology. She celebrated with her parents, Dawn and Matthew, as well as her sister Sydney, outside the Watsco Center. They flew in from New Jersey to celebrate the occasion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sad to graduate\u2014it doesn\u2019t feel real yet,\u201d she said. \u201cI will miss everything here. The community, the professors; everyone here was super helpful and they want you to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cinquemani said that her experience at the University helped her learn the sports medicine field, especially the internship class, where she had the opportunity to work in a local hospital. Not ready to leave Miami yet, Cinquemani is looking for jobs in South Florida.<\/p>\n

Advertising management major Gustavo De Matos Henrique Pires came to the University from his hometown of Recife, Brazil. He also plans to stay in Miami and is currently interviewing with a few companies. Pires said the weather drew him to the University, but the people and experiences kept him at the U.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe friends I made and classes I took prepared me for the real world, and the experiences I\u2019ve had helped me grow in and out of school,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s bittersweet to graduate\u2014I\u2019ve gone through all the stages of grief, and I\u2019m now in the acceptance phase. I did what I could and needed to do to get the most out of this experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CommencementNayely Menendez, who graduated Friday with a degree in electronic media, was the first in her family to attend college in the United States. Menendez said the road to graduation was arduous but that she was relieved and happy to cross the stage and felt her extended family\u2019s support Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so proud of the fact that I did this,\u201d said Menendez, who found her on-campus family at UMTV. \u201cIt was a struggle, but in the end, I have the degree now, and that\u2019s what matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students from the College of Arts and Sciences, graduating in the afternoon ceremony, were also excited to earn their degrees on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eduardo Guzman, a biology major, earned a scholarship to the University, but wanted to become a Hurricane well before that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my dream to go to UM, and the fact that I got accepted and I was able to get a scholarship\u2014I am very glad to be here,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Guzman moved to the United States from Cuba during high school. He began serving as a technician at a behavior clinic for children with autism after high school, a job he has continued through college. Now, Guzman is working on his master\u2019s in special education while working, so he can become a better therapist for his patients. But Guzman is also planning to apply to medical school, and hopes to one day become a psychiatrist.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels good to graduate because it will open new doors for me both professionally and personally,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Neuroscience major Maggie Weaver was also feeling fortunate for the mentors and friends she met at the University. In particular, professors Steven Ullman and Michael French in health management and policy, helped her realize that rather than going to medical school, she would prefer to work on the business side of health care.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose two professors were so amazing that I wouldn\u2019t have a job without them,\u201d said Weaver, who is from Lexington, Kentucky. \u201cThey taught me that health care is a people business, challenged me to see that there are many different career options in it, and helped me become passionate about health management and policy.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0She is moving to San Diego soon to work at a biotechnology consulting firm, but said she will miss her Miami home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese were the best four years ever, and if I could do it again it would be Miami every time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Other students shared mixed feelings. Tenally LeClaire, who graduated with a degree in criminology, sat next to three friends she met her first year in Mahoney-Pearson Residential College.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m having a lot of emotions about graduating, but I\u2019m grateful to be here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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