Do you think about your commencement speaker and speech?

I graduated undergrad in 2006 and still think of the words of my commencement speaker. I saw the glaze in his eyes when he mentioned difficult times. He gave advice and I followed it as best I could. Was your commencement speech meaningful? Or was it mediocre without lasting thoughts about it?

7 Comments
 

Mine was mediocre and I can’t even remember it well. I think about Ret Admiral McRaven’s commencement speech though. I watched that when I was either late in high school or early in college and it’s had a place in my memory since then. 

“The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.” - Nassim Taleb
 

Oh ok yeah McCraven is really good - I’m reading his book ‘Sea Stories’ right now.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 
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As a 2020 graduate, I had an almost nonexistent virtual graduation ceremony. This led me to watch numerous commencement speeches in the weeks after my graduating in an attempt to gain the parting wisdom and inspiration you've described. Some notable speeches:

Admiral McCraven's of course: 

Steve Jobs at Stanford 2005: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd_ptbiPoXM&list=PLmBzeXuqUa9IedS-GGfC5yAF7qCG-jubl&index=7 "Stay hungry, stay foolish" is seared into my brain forever after watching this.

Denzel Washington at Penn 2011: 

 "To get something you never had, you have to do something you've never done." Such simple advice that's easily forgettable in the complexity of life.

Lastly, an all time classic, David Foster Wallace's "This is Water" commencement speech at liberal arts school Kenyon College in 2005. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CrOL-ydFMI

 

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