posted by Mike Madison at 10:28 PM /
Here's the commencement speech that no one asked me to give:
To the members of the Class of '07: Congratulations! Now you're on your own.
Seriously: For most of the last 12 years, you've heard your teachers and your parents telling you to do as they do and think as they think. When you're six or ten or 14 years old, that works pretty well. The best and safest way to bring up a young person in this community is to encourage them to emulate the elders in their lives. Your presence here today is testament to your success, and theirs, in pursuing that goal. Let's hear you give a round of thanks to everyone here today -- and those who can't be here with us today -- without whom your success and happiness would not be possible.
Now, however, the tables are turned. You're all about to begin lives of independence -- living away from home, most of you, for the first time. Choosing how to spend your own time. How to prioritize your interests. How to respond to trouble. How to savor success. Your family and friends will, I hope, always be there to support you when you need or want help. But from this point forward, the most important rule to follow is this one: Think for yourself.
I hope that while you were thinking like your parents and teachers these last several years, seeds of independent thought were being planted as well. I'm doing more than hoping, actually. I'm confident that those seeds are there. Those seeds have already started to sprout. And over the next several years they -- and you -- will mature. Use your time to acquire knowledge. Use your independent thinking to examine the choices you make. Are those choices the right ones for you? For those around you? Are those the right choices where you live? Where you study? Where you work? Where you play?
Do not confuse independent thinking with self-absorption. Think for yourself not just to make yourself the best person you can be, but also to make the world around you a better place. Think for those you love and for those you befriend. Think for those you serve. Think for your community and your country, for the environment and for the future of the world. When you leave this school and this place, you literally can choose the world you want to make for yourself. You have earned the power to choose. Think about that.
Let me close with something a little less heavy. Youth, they say, is wasted on the young. Don't believe that for a second. Have a blast. Knock yourself out. Get crazy. Bend the rules -- even break them once in a while. Before you know it, you may end up at a podium at a commencement, giving a speech like this one. And you may look back and wonder, when did I get so serious all of a sudden? Go find a Talking Heads song called "Once in a Lifetime" and listen to it again and again. You are the choices you make. Take advantage of your right to choose. Then no whining, and no regrets.
Go forth. Have fun. Do right. And be well.
To the members of the Class of '07: Congratulations! Now you're on your own.
Seriously: For most of the last 12 years, you've heard your teachers and your parents telling you to do as they do and think as they think. When you're six or ten or 14 years old, that works pretty well. The best and safest way to bring up a young person in this community is to encourage them to emulate the elders in their lives. Your presence here today is testament to your success, and theirs, in pursuing that goal. Let's hear you give a round of thanks to everyone here today -- and those who can't be here with us today -- without whom your success and happiness would not be possible.
Now, however, the tables are turned. You're all about to begin lives of independence -- living away from home, most of you, for the first time. Choosing how to spend your own time. How to prioritize your interests. How to respond to trouble. How to savor success. Your family and friends will, I hope, always be there to support you when you need or want help. But from this point forward, the most important rule to follow is this one: Think for yourself.
I hope that while you were thinking like your parents and teachers these last several years, seeds of independent thought were being planted as well. I'm doing more than hoping, actually. I'm confident that those seeds are there. Those seeds have already started to sprout. And over the next several years they -- and you -- will mature. Use your time to acquire knowledge. Use your independent thinking to examine the choices you make. Are those choices the right ones for you? For those around you? Are those the right choices where you live? Where you study? Where you work? Where you play?
Do not confuse independent thinking with self-absorption. Think for yourself not just to make yourself the best person you can be, but also to make the world around you a better place. Think for those you love and for those you befriend. Think for those you serve. Think for your community and your country, for the environment and for the future of the world. When you leave this school and this place, you literally can choose the world you want to make for yourself. You have earned the power to choose. Think about that.
Let me close with something a little less heavy. Youth, they say, is wasted on the young. Don't believe that for a second. Have a blast. Knock yourself out. Get crazy. Bend the rules -- even break them once in a while. Before you know it, you may end up at a podium at a commencement, giving a speech like this one. And you may look back and wonder, when did I get so serious all of a sudden? Go find a Talking Heads song called "Once in a Lifetime" and listen to it again and again. You are the choices you make. Take advantage of your right to choose. Then no whining, and no regrets.
Go forth. Have fun. Do right. And be well.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home