Graduation Speech: Finding the Good Stuff :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

The culmination of a dozen years of formal education is at hand - a just cause for celebration! You have fulfilled a quantifiable set of requirements, but what did you really learn? You have demonstrated your ability to cope with deadlines, social stress, challenging situations, major life changes, and even smelly gym socks. Knowledge is the progeny of struggle. Every challenge and adverse situation you've endured has served to strengthen your adaptability and taught you valuable lessons. All of the events that have been shared with friends, educators and parents in the past four years are experiences that have been infused into each individual's sense of self and will continue to influence your future. You have reached the end of an era, yet that era will remain forever with you. As you venture out, hopefully instilled with the knowledge you have gained, the future will abound with new and challenging opportunities. As you begin a new stage of life, (and the beginning of the end of your life), I want to tell you something someone once told me: "You know, life is like a possum in a trash can." That was a new one on me! "Yeah," I said. "How?" "Well, if the possum just sits in the can, it'll scrounge on the tidbits on top. But if the can gets shaken and rolled around a bit, the possum can get to the really good slop at the bottom." At first it just sounded like one of those "You might be redneck if ..." cartoons, but then I realized that there was a pertinent message underlying the seemingly mundane adage. Don't be contented with the bare minimum - what's given to you, what's comfortable, what's familiar, what's easy - that's just grazing the top. Shake the can! You can be like that lazy possum and nibble on the discarded pudding wrappers, soggy Cheetos and wood shavings of yesterday. Or, you can seize the moment and rattle the can around to get at the licorice, fudge, chocolate truffle ice cream and half-eaten cheesecake of last week. The world holds much more to be experienced than it easily and readily delivers. Often times, school and social pressure condition us to think and act certain ways. Throughout our daily routines young people are pressured by society to think and act certain ways, to settle neatly into a niche that feels comfortable. Over time, we become accustomed to conforming to preconceived notions of what is expected and "normal.