English Speeches with Audio & Transcripts | Books & Articles
You begin to know yourself – your capabilities, your gaps, what motivates you – well enough to commit to efforts that can take a long time to realize. Years. Decades, if necessary. You even become willing to work for goals that will not be achieved in your lifetime.
So I invite you to go forth from here with your Stanford degree in hand with the conviction to carry on their legacy, to improve on it, to create your own legacy of greatness, to live your convictions not just at the keyboard but on the streets, in the arena and in the polling place, to arrive each morning determined to hate hate, to become colorblind, to take a chance, to love your mother, Mother Earth.
And graduates, if you go out there and make that claim, if you reach back to help others do the same, then I am confident that you will lead lives worthy of your dreams, and you will fulfill that precious Spelman legacy that is now yours.
When you leave the friendly confines of West Philly: Never be discouraged. Never hold back. Give everything you’ve got. And when you fall throughout life—and maybe even tonight after a few too many glasses of champagne—fall forward.
Think of perfection like an asymptote. The journey towards it is infinite, but the destination can never be reached. If you’re able to take that journey and enjoy it, knowing that there will always be endless room for improvement, then you be ah’ight.
You can get a good education anywhere, but what made Stanford special for me was two things: 1) it granted me the room to make a space for myself if I didn’t see one, which in turn, gave me the confidence to create a space for myself when I officially entered the outside work; and most importantly and life-changing is 2) the community it allowed me to build.
So what I say to all of you is that “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. I’ve seen porta-potties on fire from a helicopter above Woodstock 99. I’ve seen Charlize Theron glitter in the dark from the backstage wings of the Oscars. All of these moments and far better ones are waiting to be experienced and marveled at by every one of you. It’s time to live.
My point is that if you’re a tortoise – emotionally, economically, intellectually, artistically, or otherwise – don’t despair. You have the rest of your life to create the inventions and the stories that the world needs. Graduates, carve your own marble until you release the invention or story that is yearning to breathe.
I guess what I’m trying to say is life is like one big Mardi Gras. But instead of showing your boobs, show people your brain, and if they like what they see, you’ll have more beads than you know what to do with and you’ll be drunk, most of the time.
College is something you complete. Life is something you experience. So don’t worry about your grade, or the results or success. Success is defined in myriad ways, and you will find it, and people will no longer be grading you, but it will come from your own internal sense of decency. Love what you do. Get good at it. Competence is a rare commodity in this day and age. And let the chips fall where they may.
Graduates, this is the time to take your shots. Your life will go by fast. Give it your all. Stand up for yourself. Stay curious. Be a good citizen of the world. Don’t get crushed under the weight of your expectations. Know that the real victory in life is the long game – measure your success by how much you evolve, not necessarily how much you win. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
But as I get farther away from my years here, I know that the power of this school is much deeper than weather control. It changed the very questions I was asking. To quote one of my favorite thinkers Abraham Joshua Heschel: “To be or not to be is not the question; the vital question is how to be and how not to be.”
I’m here to tell you finding your purpose isn’t enough. The challenge for our generation is creating a world where everyone has a sense of purpose. Today I want to talk about three ways to create a world where everyone has a sense of purpose: by taking on big meaningful projects together, by redefining equality so everyone has the freedom to pursue purpose, and by building community across the world.
The lesson here is clear, and that is, if you’re hurting, you need to help somebody ease their hurt. If you’re in pain, help somebody else’s pain. And when you’re in a mess, you get yourself out of the mess helping somebody out of theirs. And in the process, you get to become a member of what I call the greatest fellowship of all, the sorority of compassion and the fraternity of service.
As you leave Stanford, take your genius and your optimism and your empathy and go change the world in ways that will make millions of others optimistic as well. In the course of your lives, without any plan on your part, you’ll come to see suffering that will break your heart. When it happens, and it will, don’t turn away from it; turn toward it.
Accept the world for what it is, and at the same time, make it your own. I especially want you to make it your own. You are a particular variety of person, Ms. Smithie. You have spent the last four years in an environment that has encouraged you to be not just yourself, but your best self, your strongest self.
You and you alone are the only person who can live the life that writes the story that you were meant to tell. And the world needs your story because the world needs your voice. Every single one of you. And because as your story unfolds, you will inspire others to find their stories and so on and so on and so on.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Commencement Speech at Tuskegee University 2015. I have learned that as long as I hold fast to my beliefs and values — and follow my own moral compass — then the only expectations I need to live up to are my own. So, graduates, that’s what I want for all of you. I want you all to stay true to the most real, most sincere, most authentic parts of yourselves.
Now I tell the story, because the world might say you are not allowed to yet. I waited a long time out in the world before I gave myself permission to fail. Please, don’t even bother asking, don’t bother telling the world you are ready. Show it. Do it. Just As Beckett said: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.”
While the legacy of enslavement, racism, discrimination, and exclusion still influences so much of contemporary attitudes, we must never conclude that it is too late to overcome such a legacy. For it is never too late to do justice.