My Graduation Speech: Remix

Since it’s that time of year, I thought I would do a week of graduation speeches, all of them mine.  The first post in the series can be found here.  The second is located here.

It has been eight years since I stood before my graduating class and gave my valedictorian speech.  A lot has happened in the time between now and then.  I left the small town where I spent my entire childhood, finding new homes in Southfield, Auburn Hills, and Ann Arbor.  I spent six years in college, earning both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in architecture.  I meet, dated, and married the woman of my dreams.  Simply put, life happened and I am better for it.

And so what is to follow is not a speech that I have given or ever plan to give.  And yet it has been given, for I try to live the meaning behind these words in my daily life.  Enjoy.

This is not a speech about sentimental reflections on the past.  I have written such speech but have decided not to read it.  You have heard these speeches a dozen times and already know all the words.  The speech would talk about all the good times we’ve had and about how today is the first day of the rest of our lives.  That we will go out into the world and chase our dreams.  By time I finished, you would have felt happy, content, and at ease with your ability to face the world.

But if I stood before you and said all that, I would walk away feeling dishonest with you.  The world is not breathlessly awaiting our arrive.  It is not ready to embrace us with open arms.

In fact, the world will be harsh and cruel.  We live in a world where one in three women are raped in their lifetime.  Where there are enough nuclear armaments to turn the surface of the earth into a wasteland.  Where the plight of our decaying inner cities and under privileged children is ignored.  Where two hundred unique species disappear every single day.  Where people are still judged by the color of their skin, rather than the content of their character.  We live in a world that is, in many ways, rotten to the core.

At the end of today, as we walk step out into the world, these are the problems that we will face.  These, and many more like them.  Yet most of these problems are not of our making.  They are creations built out through thousands of years of culture, embedded into every part of our lives.   And so many use that as an excuse to ignore these problems, to leave here and go back to their everyday lives.

But just because we did not create these problems does not mean they are not our responsibility.  Just as we have been given the world in which to pursue our dreams, we have been given the world with all its problems.   Edmund Burke is often attributed to have said “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”  As we stand idly by, the world crumbles around us.

And so I offer to you a simple challenge: go out and make the world a better place.  Pick a cause to believe in.  Fight to raise the standard of living for America’s poor.  Battle for equality for all peoples, regardless of their race, religion, gender or sexual orientation.  Support companies that treat their employees as real people instead of as exploitable resources.  Protect the environment both here and abroad.  Treat any and all you meet with respect and dignity and demand that of those around you.

No matter how big the challenge, go and do your best.  Every tidal wave is simply a collection of tiny water drops.  So join the wave, and if there is no wave, start one.  The world will not change on its own.  Nor can we rely on our parents or grandparents to change it for us.  This is our time.  We must step up and do something with it.   We must be the change we wish to see in the world.

Thank you for reading.  We’ll be back to regular posts next week.