Words to Ponder

With just hours to go befpre my fellow upper classmen moving on campus, and on the eve of the unofficial start to my junior year, I highlight commencement speeches. I'm a ways off, but I love commencement speeches for some reason. Odd I know, can't recall the three I've already sat through. Oh well...

Sunday-
"...the richest and fullest lives attain an inner balance of work, love and play, in equal order, that to pursue one to the disregard of others is to open oneself to ultimate sadness in older age, whereas to pursue all three with equal dedication is to make possible an old age filled with serenity, peace and fulfillment."
-Doris Kearns Goodwin, '98 Commencement Speech at Dartmouth

Monday-
"Today is the day you enter into the real world, and I should give you a few pointers on what it is. Its actually not that different from the environment here. The biggest difference is you will now be paying for things, and the real world is not surrounded by three-foot brick wall. And the real world is not a restoration. If you see people in the real world making bricks out of straw and water, those people are not colonial re-enactorsthey are poor. Help them."
-Jon Stewart, '04 Commencement Speech at the College of William and Mary

Tuesday-
"Our earth is the home of revolution. In every corner of every continent men charged with hope contend with ancient ways in the pursuit of justice. They reach for the newest of weapons to realize the oldest of dreams, that each may walk in freedom and pride, stretching his talents, enjoying the fruits of the earth."
- Lyndon B. Johnson, '65 Commencement Speech at Howard University

Wednesday-
"But nothing important, or meaningful, or beautiful, or interesting, or great ever came out of imitations. The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself."
- Anna Quindlen, '99 Commencement Speech at Mount Holyoke College

Thursday-
"Continue to expose yourself to new ideas. Trust your instincts and think for yourself. Make art, or at least value it. Look for the core of what makes each person human, appreciate the details that make them unique.

Find something that moves you or pisses you off, and do something about it. Put your self out there. Be brave. Be bold. Take action. You have a voice. Speak up, especially when something tries to keep you silent. Take a stand for whats right. Raise a ruckus and make a change. You may not always be popular, but youll be part of something larger and bigger and greater that yourself."
- Samuel L. Jackson, '04 Commencement Speech at Vassar College

Friday-
"The realities of American life have made it easy and understandable for all of us to note the obstaclesbemoan the circumstancesdespise the aggressors and debate the statistics. But at some point, we who are privileged to have an education and fortunate enough to know better, have to step forward and accept if not some blame for the plight of our own, than at least a modicum of responsibility."
- Bryant Gumbel, '01 Commencement Speech at Howard University

Saturday-
"So, Im left with the last thing that I sort of ignored as a topic. Happiness. Im sure you have been told that this is the best time of your life. It may be. But if its true that this is the best time of your life, if you have already lived or are now living at this age the best years, or if the next few turn out to be the best, then you have my condolences. Because you'll want to remain here, stuck in these so-called best years, never maturing, wanting only to look, to feel and be the adolescent that whole industries are devoted to forcing you to remain."
-Toni Morrison, '04 Commencement Speech at Wellesley