I am delighted to be speaking to you today. Your graduation from college is certainly worthy of a celebration, a few words of advice and encouragement and inspiration.
I want to share three lessons with you today.
In a little while, you will cross the stage and receive a handshake and a diploma. You have much to be thankful for. You have studied, grown mentally, physically and emotionally, and are now eligible to join those folks out in the “real world” as a professional at work.
The first lesson I want to share with you is that you will have a partner in your professional life. No, it is not your wife, or husband, boyfriend, girlfriend, or anyone you know today. You did not select this partner, they chose you. They choose everyone, by the way.
Your new partner will be the government. They will be looking over you for many years, as long as you work, even after you finish working. They will be taking a good share of your paycheck. Those of you already working know this, as you have probably noticed a difference between your gross pay and your net pay. The gap is what your new partner eats, more or less. Your new partner, by the way, is always paid first, I mean, eats first, and you get what is left over.
It is strange that the harder you work, the more hours you put in, the more raises you get, all signs of reward and recognition that you will earn, the more your partner will take. I don’t want to discourage you from working hard and being dedicated to your job, career and employer, but you need to know that your partner is hungry and you will just have to get used to the need to feed them, because they never get tired of eating. I do not want to sound revolutionary, but someday I hope that people will do something to curb the appetite of this expanding partner. Maybe give them an appetite suppressant, for starters.
The second lesson is that your major is not your career. People who go and graduate from college spend a lot of time and money (maybe your own and maybe someone else’s) getting ready for a career in the real world and more often than not, decide that they are not happy with their career choice (make that major they studied) that they have made. This is also true of far too many people who are already working today: they don’t like their job, their boss, their coworkers, their industry, their commute, the cubicle they occupy, whatever.
I understand this, as I was unhappy in several jobs in my career before I came to know what made me happy. And, the truth is that what I did that made me happy in terms of work when I was in high school and college makes me happy today.
My advice is that you spend the time now to find out what you enjoy doing before you attempt to make a career out of it. Simply sit down and write down what you enjoy doing and then try to find a job doing it. Don’t do it the other way, finding a job and trying to make it fit. That process will make you miserable. It will make those around you unhappy. Your employer will also be grateful that you are not just collecting a paycheck while you try to find out if what you are getting paid to do is something you enjoy.
I say this because you deserve to engage your passion while you are working. When this takes happens, you will become energized by the work you do, and it will be noticed by all around you, especially your employer. Employers want engaged, passionate employees who are happy in their work. Do what you need to do to find your particular passion and use it when you are working.
The third lesson is that life flies by. It seems like yesterday that I was sitting right where you are, waiting for the commencement speaker to finish so I could get my diploma and go have a beer. And, get on with my life.
I did get on with my life, and that life has been a good one. But, it has gone by quickly, far faster than I thought possible. While it may seem quaint and trivial to say this, you really do need to stop and smell roses everyday.
You need to get up early and watch the sunrise, and sunset, walk in the rain, tell those around you that you love them, call a friend, send a birthday card, sit in the park and watch the birds, sit by a creek and watch the water flow by, enjoy the silence of a cool night. All of these things seem so small in comparison to the mighty deeds that you will do for the betterment of mankind, yet they serve to keep us grounded that we all inhabit the same small planet in the universe and that often there are great pleasures all around us, everyday if we only take the time to see them.
Take that time, slow down and see the beautiful things that surround all of us.
As you walk across the stage in a few minutes, you will leave the cocoon of an academic institution for the working world. Be aware of the new partner you will have, find out what you love to do before you start working for a paycheck, and last, no matter how hard you work, take time every single day to take a look around the world you live in, and enjoy it. It was created for you. Thank you.
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