Last night we went to my sister-in-law’s high school graduation. We struggled through the speeches of five valedictorians, the class president, the student choice speaker, the vice principal and finally the superintendent. Then the reading of the names…. The pitiful sound system kept us hanging on every word (just to understand what was being said). All of the speeches had the same theme: go out, do good, follow your dreams…. As we left, our discussion turned to what we would have said as the guest speaker at the graduation. None of us could come up with anything. Madeleine Albright spoke at my University graduation; all I remember is how parched I was from sitting in the sun wearing polyester and how badly I was sunburned. Fact is, we’ve all been through a number of graduations so we’ve seen our fair share of motivational speeches. One would think that we could cull the best pieces of the speeches we’ve heard and combine them with one or two lessons that are worth sharing with a bunch of high school graduates. Nope, we were clueless.
After more thought, here is my list:
- Don’t worry – things usually aren’t as big in hindsight as they seem in the present.
- Figure it out – gather the opinions of many but in the end remember that your actions are your own and you own them. It’s up to you, good luck.
- Happiness – Happiness is great but if you spend all of your time searching for it you may never find it. It’s better to be happy than to try to find and do things that make you happy.
In conclusion, if I could grasp those things I’d be better off. I guess that you rarely give advice that you don’t need yourself.
That’s all I’ve got.