For the Class of 2020: Guidance from the Past & Present
Photo by Kristopher Roller
As 2020 graduation celebrations continue (often virtually), consider views shared last week (Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey) as well as several from the past (Steve Jobs, JK Rowlings and US Navy Admiral William H. McRaven.)
Barack Obama (former US President): Virtual 2020
"So even if half of this semester was spent at Zoom University, you’ve earned this moment. You should be very proud.
"Graduates, you have to remember that you are inheritors of one of America’s proudest traditions. Which means you’re all role models now — whether you like it or not. Your participation in this democracy, your courage to stand up for what’s right, your willingness to forge coalitions — these actions will speak volumes ... you’re the folks we’ve been waiting for to come along.
"That’s the power you hold. The power to shine brightly for justice, for equality, and for joy. You’ve earned your degree. And it’s up to you to use it."
Oprah Winfrey (media executive, actress, entrepreneur): Virtual 2020
"I wish I could tell you I know the path forward. I don’t. There is so much uncertainty. In truth, there always has been.
"It’s vital that you learn, and we all learn, to be at peace with the discomfort of stepping into the unknown ... The noise of the world drowns out the sound of you. You have to get still to listen.
"Can you, the class of 2020, show us not how to put the pieces back together again, but how to create a new and more evolved normal, a world more just, kind, beautiful, tender, luminous, creative, whole?
"What I do know is that the same guts and imagination that got you to this moment — all those things are the very things that are going to sustain you through whatever is coming."
Steve Jobs (Designer/innovator) to the Stanford University Class of 2005
"Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
"Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.
"Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition ... Everything else is secondary."
JK Rowling (Author) to the Harvard Class of 2008
"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.
"Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies.
"You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any qualification I ever earned"
US Navy Admiral William H. McRaven to the University of Texas Class of 2014
"Every morning in basic SEAL training, my instructors, who at the time were all Vietnam veterans, would show up in my barracks room and the first thing they would inspect was your bed. If you did it right, the corners would be square, the covers pulled tight, the pillow centered just under the headboard and the extra blanket folded neatly at the foot of the rack — that’s Navy talk for bed.
"It was a simple task — mundane at best. But every morning we were required to make our bed to perfection. It seemed a little ridiculous at the time, particularly in light of the fact that were aspiring to be real warriors, tough battle-hardened SEALs, but the wisdom of this simple act has been proven to me many times over.
"If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.
"Know that life is not fair and that you will fail often. But if take you take some risks, step up when the times are toughest, face down the bullies, lift up the downtrodden and never, ever give up — if you do these things, then the next generation and the generations that follow will live in a world far better than the one we have today."