Good morning/afternoon/evening parents,
grandparents, relatives, friends, distinguished guests, and most importantly,
Class of 2018! I’m honored to share in
this special day of celebration and accomplishment with you.
You have taken the exams, passed the
classes, and conquered the SOL tests. In
fact, you have succeeded in achieving every key academic challenge over the
last thirteen years of your public education that has led you to this important
moment.
Thirteen years. That is a significant portion of your life
spent in pursuit of one goal—a goal that you will reach very shortly. I wonder, though, if you’ve ever stopped and
thought, “What now?” No, I don’t mean
the more obvious responses, such as college, military, career, or even beach
week. I mean the question in a much
larger sense, as in: “What does it all mean?”
Robert Fulghum wrote a book of short
essays entitled, All I Really Need to
Know, I Learned in Kindergarten.
From the title, you might surmise that he is suggesting you have wasted
the last twelve years of your life, and we could have held a similar ceremony
when you were only five or six years old.
Although his message transcends this notion, Fulghum does, in fact, make
a compelling case. For instance, in one
essay, he lists a variety of essential life skills that we learn. The first ten go like this:
1.
Share everything.
2. Play
fair.
3.
Don't hit people.
4. Put
things back where you found them.
5.
Clean up your own mess.
6.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
7. Say
you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
8. Wash
your hands before you eat.
9.
Flush.
10.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
It’s hard to argue with any of this advice. Will it be all that you need in order to be
successful for the rest of your life?
Probably not. I think that
Fulghum’s larger point, though, is that the lessons we learned in our most
formative years are applicable for a lifetime.
For many of us, we made some of the best memories of our lives while
viewing the world through the lens of a child.
In the same book, Fulghum writes, “I want to be 5 years old again for an hour. I want to laugh a lot and
cry a lot. I want to be picked up or rocked to sleep in someone’s arms, and
carried up to bed just one more time.”
Obviously, for him, those days were perhaps among his very
best. I, too, believe that we should
strive to extend the innocence of childhood as long as possible, but I also
feel that we can make incredible memories at any point during our lives. When we were children, though, a wide range
of emotions seemed more vivid and occurred with more frequency. Perhaps, those who seek to reclaim their
childhood, to be the Ponce de Leon in search of the fountain of youth, are
really trying to recapture the vibrancy of life that is often experienced at a
younger age. What if we could do just
that, though? That is, experience life
to its fullest every day.
The following setting is in stark contrast to an author
reflecting on his childhood. It was 1993
and Jim Valvano, former basketball coach at North Carolina State University,
was accepting the Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award at the inaugural
ESPYs. He was also giving the final
speech of his life that he knew was quickly coming to an end because of
cancer. The message he delivered that
evening is among the most memorable of the last quarter century, and among the
most impactful, as it launched his V Foundation for Cancer Research. In several ways, it was reminiscent of Robert
Fulghum’s desire to embrace the memories and simple lessons of his youth. Coach Valvano said, “To me, there are three things we all should do every day.
We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh
every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And
number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be
happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry,
that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week,
you're going to have something special.”
Facing the end of his life, Valvano was trying to live
every day to its fullest. One might say,
he appreciated it as a child might.
During the same speech, he joked about the fact that he was being given
a cue to wrap it up so that the TV network could cut to the scheduled
commercial break and get on with the show.
He continued speaking anyway, noting that those types of worries were no
longer concerns for him. It put things
in perspective for all of those privileged enough to hear him, whether in
person or on television, and, frankly, no one wanted him to stop.
Robert Fulghum was on to something in his book. Kindergarten was a simpler time, with fewer
cares and new experiences every day.
However, as important as that first year was, we do not learn everything
we need to know in kindergarten. So,
what does it all mean? It means that the
12 years that followed your initial year of schooling has molded you into the
person you are today. The lessons you
have learned, the knowledge you have gained, and the experiences you have had can
help you to approach life in a more meaningful way than when you were
younger…if you will allow it to happen.
Now, as you prepare for the next chapter in your lives and
begin to take on the mounting responsibilities of adulthood, I challenge you to
take stock of what might appear important at the time versus those things that
actually are important as Coach Valvano demonstrated. Perhaps then, we can slow down enough to
laugh, to cry, to think, and to experience many more of those “full days” that
he was describing. I also have to
believe that some of those things that are truly important are the same
timeless truths that Robert Fulghum described.
So, as you take your next steps, I also challenge you to play fair, say you're sorry when you hurt somebody, and take the time to enjoy some warm cookies and cold
milk.
Congratulations, Class of 2018. May each of you enjoy many more full days,
and may you impact others so that they may do the same.
No comments:
Post a Comment