FARMVILLE – The one and only time it has rained during a Longwood graduation, the drops began to fall just after a graduate with the last name of Sprinkle was called to step forward for the diploma.

Another Sprinkle graduated Saturday but early morning clouds withheld their rain until breaking into a cloudburst well after the university's ceremony was over.

A ceremony that made history with the graduation of LU's first nursing class.

The weather may have been convinced to remain positive due to the energetic commencement address by 1997 LU graduate Ransford Doherty, who told those about to join him as alumni to “get character or become one.”

Too often “in our quest for the prize,” said Doherty, who has recurring roles in ABC's Body Of Proof and TNT's Major Crimes, “we compromise our character and become characters who lack character.”

And you miss opportunities that are right in front of you.

Asking the graduating class to imagine they are the actors and he is their director, he conjured a scene in the Sahara Desert and a temperature of 120 degrees.

“You're hot. You're thirsty. You're hungry and the only thing on your mind right now is food and water. However, sprawled out in this desert are tools: hammers, screwdrivers, wrenches, pliers, ropes…But like I said, the only thing on your mind is food and water,” he continued, speaking with verve and animation.

“So you walk for miles on end ignoring all the tools that lay before you because at the present time you feel they are of no use to you. Suddenly, off in the distance you see a castle so you run as fast as you can towards the castle until you get to its entrance,” Doherty continued.

There is a huge sign on the castle's 10-foot tall door that reads: Food and water behind this door.

And the door is locked, as tight as water inside of sand.

Kicking the door does nothing.

Pounding the door gets you nowhere.

“You run around the castle looking for another way in, but there isn't one,” said the son of immigrants from Sierra Leone. “Then you get the brilliant idea to go get the tools you saw sprawled out all over the desert and use them to knock down that door, but when you turn around to retrieve all those tools, they're gone.

“All those tools you ignored,” he said, “were the keys to get you through that door.

“That hammer you ignored back there was common sense.

“That screwdriver was patience.

“That drill, persistence.

“Heck, you stomped on hard work, threw away positive attitude, spit on courage, told discernment, discipline, determination, honesty, integrity, motivation, perseverance and some spunk to kick rocks.

“Kindness and prayer,” he said, “I'm ashamed to tell the people what you did to that.”

Where was character in the desert scene?

Or, where should it have been displayed?

“Character,” he advised the 843 bachelor's degree recipients, “is not only picking up those tools and holding onto to them but using them throughout your journey in life, because there will always come a time when you need to use them.”

But that scenario was pretend. Make believe.

The reality in front of Doherty, filling Wheeler Mall, was quite the opposite.

And he told them so.

“Today, as I stand before the class of 2013, I see a beautiful group of individuals who made it to this day, inside the castle, using the tools you received from Longwood University…Now it took a lot of strength for each of you to carry those heavy tools day-in and day-out but you did it, and when the time came you used them,” he said.

“Now, that you're in this castle,” he told them, “enjoy this feast. It's a beautiful moment. Embrace graduation day, but tomorrow be ready to not only continue to carry the great tools you received from Longwood University but be open for some new ones, because you're going to need them for the next castle you go to.”

The world is a highly competitive place, he warned, “and you will be tempted daily to get rid of all the tools you've just now grown accustomed to carrying…There will be times in your journey where you will want to quit. That's normal.”

So what do you do then?

“You just don't quit.”

Fear will be something you will have to go through, but not live within, in order to obtain courage, he said.

Rejection is going to happen.

“Every plant has to go through some dirt in order to grow. The sun doesn't need the earth to shine, so keep on shining. You are whole. You are complete and not all fish are meant to be in your ocean.

“And at the end of it all,” Doherty concluded, “just say 'Thank you, God, thank you, God, thank you!”