As the calendar flips to April, my anxiety that the year is already a quarter of the year over heightens (ALREADY???) and the my old college internal clock is ticking again to let me know that graduation season is right around the corner, a clock that sometimes gets reset when I attended my sister's graduation, or attended MJ's graduation from nursing school, at which the commencement speaker was...the legendary John Legend!
I've always had a fantasy of giving a speech in front of my high school, or in front of a college or something, probably due to my illusions of grandeur as a teenager and my close run at valedictorian at my high school (I should have gotten it to if the "regular" classes didn't actually count against my GPA, but that's another story for another day) but in my mind it was because a graduation speaker is someone who made it, who got to the top of the mountaintop, achieved everything that they wanted, and they succeeded so much that at least thousands (likely millions) of people know who they are. I was hoping I'd become a famous Survivor contestant, Jeopardy champion, or maybe the CEO of a major company, a state or U.S. senator, etc. Those are the types of people that usually make it on stage to give the graduation speeches. I always thought that was a little presumptuous, and definitely do now, that because you're a celebrity and people know who you are, you earned the right to give advice to graduation high school or college students to tell them how to lead their lives and be just as successful as the celebrity! Of course it doesn't necessarily work that way, and the celebrity/ successful person giving the speech likely went through a l of adversity, got a little lucky, and often didn't listen to people before them to get where they are today. And it depends on what you mean by "successful." Is a retired army captain raising 4 kids and helping with local charity causes that no one's never heard of not as successful as a famous actor who got paid due to his fame to speak at the school?
And yea, I really need to adjust my image of a graduation speaker: In my fantasy of speaking at graduation I would tell everyone the secrets of success and how to make it in life, and impart the crucial piece of wisdom that all young people need to make their dreams come true. Nowadays that's probably even less likely than it was back in my day sitting at my high school graduation listening to speakers talk (In fact I can't remember who the guest speaker was at either of my graduations from high school or college); students are probably checking their cell phones, thinking about what Tiktok videos they want to check out next, how to become the next 20-something-year-old millionaire/billionaire rather than listening to an old geezer talk.
But, after reading a book devoted to commencement speeches called "Way More than Luck....." I find that I kind of enjoy the speeches. They're inspirational, usually pretty funny (highly recommended, as it loosens up the crowd and makes people pay attention for the next joke in case they miss it). I do feel like most of them lean a little more toward "do what you love, go out of your comfort zone, take chances!" when most of the people listening to the speech will likely take the safe route of using their college education to advance their careers and have a safe journey through life, but I do appreciate the reminder by the speakers to look at life in the bigger picture, 10, 20, 30 years down the road to what you want to be when you're at the age of looking back on what you've done in your life, and maybe, just maybe, one day think about that one time at the graduation ceremony when the speaker imparted some valuable pearls of wisdom that you can use to further your life, even if it's misdirected or doesn't apply to one's own particular situation, at least knowing that just maybe, one day your life can improve or get a lucky break enough to become that guy giving the speech.
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