Let the Commencements Commence!

Typically, this space would start off with a quote, but I just couldn’t narrow it down this week. Graduation is on my mind since so many friends and family members have kids who are graduating from college or high school. I remember both of my commencements as wonderfully chaotic days that seems entirely too short, considering they were each the culmination of four years of growth, friendships, learning, and fun. In the spirit of that and because no graduate I’ve ever known remembers what their commencement speaker said, here are a few quotes and thoughts condensed into a much shorter version of most

 speeches.

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined”—Henry David Thoreau. Before you go whole hog on a dream, make sure it’s a goal, not a fantasy. We all have dreams, but they need to be tempered with reality. When I was little, I wanted to be a Rockette. I was convinced of it, and I begged for ballet lessons. The problem? Even with the lessons, I was a lost cause on the dance floor. I could have kept dancing because it’s good for fitness, but it would have been silly to hold on to this goal, because dream or not, girls who are short don’t become Rockettes No amount of dedication was going to make me six inches taller. Dream big, but know yourself. Know who you are and what you truly need, not just what you want. There’s a difference, and that is for you to figure out.

“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going”--- Beverly Sills. Regardless of what Siri,  Google, a GPS, or the Waze app tells you, always go the long way around. Faster isn’t always better. This applies to more than road travel of course. You can write a paper or research a project with some Cliff Notes and Wikipedia, but you’re going to be up a creek someday when you have a job that requires you to do more than the bare minimum. Your future bosses won’t give you a bad grade; they’ll fire you. Do the work. Do all the work; I promise it will pay off.

“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”---John Wooden. You’re feeling pretty smart, aren’t you? You probably are, but wait…there’s more. You’re going to find out just how dumb you actually are. OK, not stupid, just inexperienced. You don’t know it all, and you’re never going to, but that’s OK. As long as you learn something new every day, there will be no stopping you. And while you’re out there soaking it all up? Look around and see if you can teach someone else something. Don’t hog all that knowledge, share it!

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”---Arthur Ashe. We often think that we have to have something else, go somewhere else, be someone else. Nope. If you’ve just made it through high school or college, you’ve got some excellent skills. Start using them, right now. Don’t wait for a specific job, or think you need to be in a particular place to begin. Start right now, get going. You’re pretty well equipped already, even if you don’t really think so. More classes and advanced degrees are worthy pursuits, but stop waiting for a piece of paper to tell you what you’re worth. You already have so much, make use of it.

“Failure is an event, not a person. Yesterday ended last night.” --- Zig Ziglar.  If you haven’t failed at something yet, don’t worry it’s coming. Also, we’ve all failed, early and often, so if you think you’re batting a thousand, go back to math class, you’re so not. In college, before I realized I didn’t, in fact, know everything, I got a big, fat, red “F” on a political science paper I’d worked on for weeks. I begged the professor for mercy and asked to do it over. It was on something to do with the Supreme Court and Nixon, I forget, but that’s not the point. Nixon’s dead and I’m not on the bench, but that experience taught me lessons way more valuable than politics or history. Failure is kind of like a tetanus shot after stepping on a rusty nail; it stings, but it works. Without it, we’d all have lockjaw because those nails are out there, but they don’t have to mean the end of you.

To all the graduates who are moving onward and upward this season, get at it. These quotes may or may not be helpful, what do I know? Oh wait, I know this. You shouldn’t ever stop looking within you, around you and ahead of you. I have a young friend named Gabe who said to me, about moving on and growing, that education separates the great from the merely good. He’s wicked smart. Go be great.

Pics are of me, way back when. And so it goes.