The 10 Most Important Messages Delivered This Commencement Season

For being the big buildup to the awarding of college degrees, commencement speeches are usually really forgettable. Think about it: can you recall who your commencement speaker was, much less something he said? Even senior classes that manage to bring in well-known figures like politicians or actors may be stuck listening to campaign rhetoric, or worse, fumbling remarks prepared on the spot. However, every year a few wise speakers rise above the cliches and the filler and deliver a truly memorable and important message. Here are the 10 best of those from 2012.

1. It’s up to women to stand up and be heard:

   It may not seem so important to encourage women to be empowered in the 21st century, but as one recent survey found, hundreds of teenage girls would rather be a celebrity’s personal assistant than a U.S. senator or the head of a major company. So President Obama’s message to graduating Barnard College women this year was a much-needed one: “Now that new doors have been opened for you, you’ve got an obligation to seize those opportunities.” He said success doesn’t necessarily mean running for office or leading a corporation. “But if you decide not to sit yourself at the table, at the very least you’ve got to make sure you have a say in who does. It matters.”

2. Stay informed:

   In his speech to the College of William & Mary, veteran journalist Jim Lehrer made many important pleas to the graduates, but the key was to stay informed. “Some of the dumbest people I know received diplomas from esteemed institutions of higher learning,” he said. After graduating, they tuned out everything around them that didn’t directly affect them. But using the example of a 29% unemployment rate for veterans, he urged the students to form opinions, ask questions, join the public dialogue, and participate civilly to help solve such problems. It was an important reminder to the Occupy generation to stay involved, but to do it the right way.

3. Doing it for the money is never worth it:

   Author Neil Gaiman’s speech to graduates of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia is already being called one of the best in recent memory. In speaking of his experiences of trying to make it as a writer, he hit on a particular point especially relevant to today’s grads, who are loaded down with debt and looking to find work, anywork, just to make ends meet. “Nothing I did where the only reason for doing it was the money was ever worth it, except as bitter experience.” He advised students to only take work that moves them toward their goals.

4. Bob Woodruff’s four truths:

   Had Boston College heard from broadcaster Bob Woodward pre-2006, he almost certainly would have had a different message for them. But being nearly killed by an IED while reporting in Iraq changed Woodruff’s perspective, which he shared with the graduates in a commencement address this summer. It was a simple but important message with four tenets: find what makes you happy; exercise your faith; give back; and don’t wait to tell the people you love what they mean to you. When all is said and done, it’s not successes or failures that matter, but people.

5. Every generation has removed some barrier to the American dream:

   The importance of New York mayor Michael Bloomberg’s message to grads at the University of North Carolina was partly due to timing and partly to setting. Just days earlier the state had banned gay marriage, then the president had announced support for gay marriage. So Bloomberg took the opportunity to frame the issue as a part of America’s ongoing fight to let all Americans be free and pursue their dreams. He predicted that because of technology and the advance of “liberty’s light,” this generation of Americans will live to see all citizens “as full and equal members of the American family.”

6. Questioning everything is normal:

   As the host of This American Life, Ira Glass deals in stories that ring true and hit home to Americans. So it’s no surprise that his speech to Goucher College graduates was full of down-to-earth, helpful wisdom, not a bunch of lofty exhortations. “I wish that somebody had said to me that it’s normal to feel lost for a little while.” He admitted he floundered at first after college, and really had only one skill (editing). He said he was stupid, and so will they be at first. “You will question your own choices, your relationships, your jobs, your friends … that you went to college at all … that’s totally OK. That’s totally normal. If that happens, you’re doing it right.”

7. Be a passionate, engaged citizen:

   Five minutes into his 20-minute speech, playwright Tony Kushner took a moment to illustrate to graduating grad students at Emerson College what “tough times” the U.S. finds itself in. Hardly stopping to breathe, Kushner fearlessly hammered problem after problem with often biting wit: wealth inequality and the lack of banking regulations, endless war and the destruction of habeas corpus, “lunatics’” access to guns, failing public education, $1 trillion student debt, and the election of “imbecile” politicians. He implored them to not forget their “other job” of citizen, and to “enkindle your communities and your community will enkindle your soul.”

8. Reconnect with people:

   At Bentley University’s commencement in May, Boston Red Sox president Larry Lucchino picked up an honorary degree, then took over the mic to impart some humorous wisdom from the immortal Yogi Berra and some funny one-liners like, “There are three things money can’t buy: love, happiness, and the American League pennant.” But he also conveyed an important message to the tech-obsessed group: unplug every now and then. “Try not to let the roar of information pouring through your phones and computers deaden your intuition, overwhelm your critical judgment, or drown out the beautiful notes of your own inimitable song. Reduce Facebook. Limit the Tweeting. Take off the headphones. Listen for your song.”

9. Don’t be thin, be thick:

   MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry gave several straightforward bits of advice to Wellesley grads at their commencement this year, including “Don’t nod and smile unless you are happy and agree,” and “Don’t raise your voice like you’re asking a question when you’re making a statement.” But her best piece of advice was to be “thick,” not as in “dense” but more like being a person of substance. She said “thin” people vote, but thick people run for office. It’s the thick women who listen, learn, and be quiet when necessary. And it’s the thick women who make the history books.

10. Serve a purpose larger than yourself:

    Navy SEAL and White House Fellow Eric Greitens had an important message for the 2012 class at Tufts University. During his combat training, he realized that focusing on himself and what was “fair” made him weaker, but the more he thought of the people he was serving, the stronger he became. Now in the reserves, Greitens serves veterans through a group he helped start called The Mission Continues. To get a taste of his speaking ability and personality, watch him in a clip from The Colbert Report below. As he told the Tufts students, “The best definition I have ever heard of a vocation is that it’s the place where your great joy meets the world’s great need.”

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Taken From Online Colleges