High School Commencement speeches

I attended a graduation ceremony this evening for Archbishop Chappell High School, an all-girls Catholic school in Metairie. It was everything that one would expect a private school graduation to be: the graduates walking in and out to the brother school band playing Pomp an Circumstance, opening prayers, the shining expectant faces of the girls who already know they will be the recipients of a number of academic awards, the eye rolls of the slackers who secretly wish in a way that they, too, were receiving accolades, the awkwardness, the unbalanced walking in heels as if for the first time across the stage and with great uncertainty up and down stairs, and of course speeches. Speeches meant to send of this fresh set of scholars into the realm of the real, of auspicious beginnings.

During each speech, I could not help but feel the faint sensation of nausea, and the desire to stand up in protest: Stop this celebration of mediocrity! Stop selling lies! Cease the semantics and cliched well-wishes! Granted, there were some good quotes selected, but even so I found myself inserting my own commencement speech:

The Valedictorian implores her classmates, "Never doubt yourself..." blah blah blah fulfill your dreams blah blah blah God will provide.... I say to the class of 2014 PLEASE! DOUBT YOURSELVES. Think that you may be wrong. Think that the way you see things may not be the only way, or even the right way.  Think that you don't have it all together. Think that other people are much smarter than you, much more talented than you. Think that everything you hold to be true could be turned upside down, sideways, and inside out. Doubt that you understand things. Doubt that your interpretation of what you hear and read and see corresponds with reality. Doubt that other people care about you knowing the truth. Doubt that you are smart. Doubt that you have faith. Doubt the meaning and reason behind your every action. Doubt that anything is about you. (Nothing is ever about you.)

And then once you have doubted, once you have broken down everything, rebuild.
Rebuild with the Real.

The world is full of people who think they are God's gift to humanity, that They are the chosen few. I saw, they are a chosen few who spend too much energy thinking about who they were chosen and how special they are. Stop dwelling on being chosen and work. If you can learn to live in a way that allows for more humility and less narcissism, the world will be better. Remember: The finch in the bush is the center of its own universe.

The valedictorian said to her class, "a little work can go a long way towards success." But let me clarify, my dear class of 2014 who has never really worked. Work harder than you have for anything else, but don't work for money. Work for relationships. Work to see things and people more clearly. Work to understand the world more fully. Work to create. Work to smile. Work to appreciate things. Work for balance. Work for meaning.

Mean things. TURN OFF THE POP STATION and Listen to music that tells a story. Listen to a radio play. Listen to a book. Listen to nothing. TURN OFF The REAL HOUSEWIVES and watch Stephen Hawking's mini series How the Universe Works.

Mean things.

No professor will stand over you to make sure you read,  So, read for pleasure, read for inspiration, and read to know that you were not the first person to think of something important. Read to know things. Read so that you have something to say that means something.

Finally, the one virtue that I could wish upon any graduate, or any person for that matter is courage. It takes ultimate courage to stand and face yourself. It takes courage to take responsibility for mistakes and failure and selfish or disordered motivation. See your own story so that you might get a glimpse of someone else's story. Never overestimate your vision of the truth. You may see just a pinhole of what IS, and yet you can accomplish infinite goodness if you would only know what you see and see what you know.

We are a speck on a speck on a speck, but we are also an expanding universe Capable of greatness in the tiniest most insignificant of moments. Infinity works in both directions.

I leave you, class of 2014, with Ralph Waldo Emerson's definition of success.

To laugh

                                                                      often and much,

to win respect of intelligent people

and the affection of children;

to earn the appreciation of honest critics

and endure the betrayal of false friends;

to appreciate beauty;

to find the best in others;

to leave the world a bit better

whether by a healthy child,

a garden patch, or a

redeemed social condition;

to know even one life

has breathed easier

because you have lived.This is to have succeeded.