Sweet graduation, that time when finally, after years of fulfilling state and local academic requirements, you are awarded a diploma. You have learned to function five days a week, nine months a year, amid janitors, maintenance people, bus drivers, coaches, teachers, nurses, administrators, parents, classmates, and the school board.
You have been surrounded by people who influenced you, waiting for your chance to influence others.
And you know what? Everybody has butterflies. Shy people, extroverts, designers, politicians, plumbers, even trick riders. Everybody has moments of insecurity, everybody has questions. It’s how you deal with what’s inside your own head that builds your character and develops your personality. That’s why we all get to be here, to grasp variations and make them work for us.
Your choices are limited and not limited. Some of you will go to college, some will go to work, some will go to the altar, some will stay right where you are. There are no wrong paths because how do you know what you don’t want to do until you’ve had enough of it?
Your circumstances will change, and that will happen for the rest of your life: unexpected and unpredictable weather, unfulfilling jobs, unrequited love, unfinished business, inconsistent finances – the works.
This is what you’ve been preparing for. You know the basics of getting by, and each time something bewilders you, you will embrace it because you now have a disciplined and supple outlook. You realize that unclear situations are simply there for you to notice.
The year I graduated high school, American life was like an F-5 tornado followed by a rainbow – on-campus picketing of Dow Chemical, the maker of napalm; students shot for protesting segregation at a bowling alley; heart transplants; race riots in Newark, Detroit, Cleveland, DC, LA, and a hundred other cities; anti-war protests all over the world; a government that insisted citizens get only optimistic reports denying what we were all afraid to know about Vietnam; Super Bowl I; Hey Jude; Thurgood Marshall.
Our world was grim and exciting, just like yours. Anger and despair gave birth to humor. One day Abbie Hoffman and a group of friends entered the gallery at the New York Stock Exchange and threw dollar bills onto the trading floor. It stopped the exchange as brokers cheered and scrambled for cash. International trading was actually shut down as money changers grabbed and salivated. It didn’t stop the empire, but Wall Street’s response was to erect a bullet-proof enclosure of the gallery. Tell me that’s not funny! Guerilla theater exposed institutional folly.
When you have doubts, it’s a healthy sign. You will make a decision. You graduates know that strength lies in knowing that we are all imperfect, so always stretch for that high we all get from our friends and our music – it just feels right.
Have no hesitation in encouraging creative thoughts and welcome solitude as the right time to figure yourselves out. Serve the truth vigorously.
You, the Class of 2021, are now qualified to use all you know to learn more and make a difference. You might not influence how things are done, but you might. You’re good enough and smart enough, and you won’t know until you try.
And remember, if you are ever terrified or unsure, talk to a dog. They understand stuff.