It’s fitting that graduation ceremonies and spring coincide―both being hope-filled times and representing the promise of better things to come.
Commencement addresses are meant to articulate all that pent-up promise. In theory, they should congratulate, celebrate, and inspire; in reality, they are largely forgettable. The amnesiac-quality of those speeches should not be any surprise: they are delivered amidst pomp and circumstance and crowds of incredulous graduates and parents pondering, “I (expletive) can’t believe I (they) actually made it!”
But there are a few speeches with staying power, including those from good authors. Writers may not actually be any wiser than the average bear, but given the amount of contemplative time spent poking around in other people’s (real and fictional) lives, some pearly bits of their wisdom (or at least wit) should withstand all the revelry.
Here are commencement speeches from three of my favorite authors, whose insights are worth reading or listening to, at any stage in life.
In her 2008 Harvard University’s graduation ceremony, J.K. Rowling proved that she is not only wizardly writer of fantasy, but a beautiful, compassionate speaker about the many realities of life. Her commencement speech is worth watching in its entirety as she articulates the importance of failure and imagination in shaping lives:
“Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it.”
Another of my favorite speeches is found in the somber wisdom shared with the year-2000 graduates of Villanova University by Anna Quindlen, author of “A Short Guide to a Happy Life“
“Don’t ever forget what a friend once wrote Senator Paul Tsongas when the senator decided not to run for reelection because he’d been diagnosed with cancer: “No man ever said on his deathbed I wish I had spent more time in the office.” Don’t ever forget the words my father sent me on a postcard last year: “If you win the rat race, you’re still a rat.” Or what John Lennon wrote before he was gunned down in the driveway of the Dakota: “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.”
You walk out of here this afternoon with only one thing that no one else has. There will be hundreds of people out there with your same degree; there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you will be the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk, or your life on a bus, or in a car, or at the computer. Not just the life of your minds, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank account, but your soul.
People don’t talk about the soul very much anymore. It’s so much easier to write a resume than to craft a spirit. But a resume is a cold comfort on a winter night, or when you’re sad, or broke, or lonely, or when you’ve gotten back the test results and they’re not so good.”
And speaking of wit and wisdom, Anne Lamott, whose book, “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life” is a must-read for writers (and even non-writers) everywhere. Here Lamott shares some insights for graduates…and for us all:
“I bet I’m beginning to make your parents really nervous — here I am sort of bragging about being a dropout, and unemployable, and secretly making a pitch for you to follow your creative dreams, when what they want is for you to do well in your field, make them look good, and maybe also make a tiny fortune.
But that is not your problem. Your problem is how you are going to spend this one odd and precious life you have been issued. Whether you’re going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over people and circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are.”
Congratulations Graduates and remember…
“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” – Dr. Seuss