A Commencement Address For Consideration
To the Graduating Class of 2021:
Congratulations on reaching this remarkable milestone. In the interests of facilitating your expeditious exodus from the landscapes and facilities of education (online, classroom, in the field, etc.), I will confine my words, hit the main points, and then promptly get the heck out of the way between this moment and the rest of your lives.
First things first: The education never really ends. Accept and embrace it. Always try to seek out new knowledge that broadens your understanding of the world around you. Sometimes, the coolest and the more efficient life hacks may originate from someone much younger than yourself, or from someone with actual living memories of actress Betty White’s pre-teen days.
Be Kind.
Over 110 billion human beings lived before you, and billions more will follow. While you are all individually unique, never forget that you are a part of a greater chain. Now, more than ever, we are all interlinked as a species in so many ways. Your actions (or in-actions) will sooner or later affect others, so unless you intend on becoming a farmer on an uncharted Pacific island, expect to interact with someone at some level.
Assume nothing, and take nothing for granted. Do your own due diligence, and sanity check your own work with several other sources. If something of significant importance can’t be explained easily enough to your own satisfaction, research it further until it becomes so.
On a similar vein, always verify incoming data (regardless of source) before you forward it. Your future reputation will thank you.
Get your own house in order first, before attempting to assist in the fixing of the homes of others. Your own credibility is enhanced by the lack of chaos in your personal fitness, finances, self-reliance, etc. To others, you will either be seen as a sterling example to emulate, or a cautionary tale to avoid.
Find your passion and live it organically. If possible, let it be the rocket fuel that propels you to a satisfying career while enriching your bank account.
Without a spacesuit, on average you can expect to last eighty years or so on this planet. On the surface of any other celestial object within the solar system, you can cut that time down to three seconds or less. Do your part to be a sensible steward of the only place that will let you roam naked comfortably without putting yourself in mortal danger.
Be Grateful. Count your blessings frequently, and never forget that there are whole populations in the world today that dream of having a fraction of the things that you likely take for granted in the here and now.
In this world, if you bend over long enough, one of two appendages will inevitably head in your direction: a foot or a penis. Don’t be a target, and be mindful of your backside.
Master the triangle of core interpersonal skills: communications, problem solving, and coping.
When you communicate well, others will comprehend the intended messages you send completely and without misunderstanding. Conversely, when you listen actively to others and demonstrate your reception of their intent through your own words and actions, you will avoid misinterpretation and save a lot of time trying to undo conflicts that could have been avoided.
But should said conflicts occur, having the ability to identify, troubleshoot, and resolve problems in a satisfactory and expeditious manner is worth its weight in gold.
And even if things are sometimes concluded in a manner not of your liking, having good coping skills will serve you well. Nobody universally gets their way, and the sooner you can accept that, the better.
Establish and maintain a core group of true friends now. These should be the people that uplift you and truly care about your general health and success. Likewise, you should invest in people with whom you are rooting for in all aspects of life, and are eager to be associated with. Respect should be genuinely mutual.
There is value in not automatically changing the radio station or music playlist of your friends. You’ll never know when or where your next great favorite song or artist will come from.
Mistakes happen. When you learn from them and don’t repeat them, you grow. When you willfully continue to make the same ones, you have consciously made the decision to be stunted and you will grow no further.
Your two greatest treasures are your personal good health and your personal free time. Squander them at your own peril.
Everything has an expiration date. Yes, some things hold their value longer than others, but don’t bring new material things into your life without knowing when to ditch, donate, dump, or dollar out the items down the road. Very few items are worthy of eternal status, and if enough time passes, someone else will make the call that you couldn’t make when it mattered.
Honor nurturing parents, be appreciative of supportive siblings and relatives (extended and otherwise), and thank everyone along the way who positively helped you on the journey. Everyone wants to know that they mattered, and sincerely giving them that feedback only encourages them (and yourself) to do more of the same.
Every generation has its challenges. Yours is no different. What will define you is how you rise up to whatever is tossed in your direction, individually and collectively. Now is the time to look back upon humanity’s past, learn from the mistakes, and profit from the things that those who lived before got right. Build upon their successes, and make possible for those yet to be born the opportunities to do even more.
I genuinely wish it were possible to compare notes with you all, five decades down the line to see what you good people did with your lives, but myself and many in virtual attendance of your achievements today will likely be long gone. But if you consider the merit of the words within this address, and heed all that you can from them, I can promise you that all of the points mentioned will eventually resonate in time.
Go forth and do great things. Be good to yourselves and each other, and let future generations look back upon this stellar group of graduates with pride of what was collectively accomplished with the time and resources that were had on hand.
The rest of your lives truly begins now. Good luck and Godspeed.
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*Originally published by the author on 22 May 2020. Edited for grammatical clarity. Dedicated to the Class of 2020 (who likely had no formal in-person graduation), the Class of 2021, their family and friends, and all of the essential people who make Western Civilization possible.
