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

The culmination of a dozen years of formal education is at hand - a near cause for celebration You throw off complete 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 spiritedness changes, and even smelly gym socks. Knowledge is the progeny of struggle. Every repugn and adverse situation youve goalured has served to strengthen your adaptability and taught you valuable lessons. All of the events that have been divided up with friends, educators and parents in the past four years are experiences that have been infused into all(prenominal) individuals 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 speculation out, hopefully instilled with the knowledge you have gained, the future will abound with smart and challenging opportunities. As you begin a new stage of hea rt, (and the head start of the end of your life), I want to tell you something some sensation 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, itll scrounge on the tidbits on top. But if the can owns shaken and roll around a bit, the possum can get to the really thoroughly 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 sublunar adage. Dont be contented with the bare minimum - whats given to you, whats comfortable, whats familiar, whats easy - thats just grazing the top. Shake the can You can be like that work-shy possum and nibble on the discarded pudding wrappers, soggy Cheetos and woods 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 cheesecak e of last week. The instauration holds much more to be experienced than it easily and readily delivers. ofttimes times, school and social pressure condition us to think and enactment 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 expect and normal.