Yesterday, I (sorta) graduated from college! In response to said event, I thought about what it would be nice to hear and wrote my own commencement address:
Congratulations! After four years (give or take) of hard work, you're finished! Today we are celebrating what you set out to achieve and have achieved. After all of the papers, tests, projects, group projects, presentations, and finals, you're finished! I think we should all take a moment to just take a deep breath.
I hope that you are not living for the future. The future is not just tomorrow, it is here: it is today. It was yesterday. Whether you are going to start a job, go to graduate school, or even if you have absolutely no idea what you are doing after you cross the stage, you are living your future. Make the most of it: enjoy it! Don't worry about what you think the next step is.
Now, I will not welcome you to the real world. Because college is very much the real world. Over the years, many of you have taken out huge amounts of loans, paid bills, worked jobs, lived paycheck to paycheck, learned to budget your money, and, hopefully, your time. These are all realities of the real world, that some would have you believe you are only just entering. Yes, life is about to change no matter what your post grad plans are, but I believe college has prepared you, in some way for your future.
Don't forget where you came from. Be proud of where you came from. People may judge you, but don't let them put you in a box. Don't allow them to nullify everything you have worked for. People are going to discount you. They are going to judge you because of your sex, your age, your gender, where you come from. They are going to tell you what you should do and what you can't do. My hope is that as you go into the post-grad world, your mantra will be: "Don't believe me; just watch."
Don't live to please or appease others. Yes, sometimes life requires those things. And it feels good to be validated by others. But don't live for that validation. Someone is always going to think they know better than you. Older siblings arw never going to forget they are older than you. Find your passion, your dream. And go get it! Take risks and make mistakes. Live! I promise you, if they have stood by you this far through the experiment of college, they will stand by you through the journey of life. It is your journey, other people's "shoulds" cannot guide you, you must follow the compass of your own heart. There will be times where your loved ones think you should be doing something else; recite your mantra to them: "don't believe me; just watch."
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