Yet

"...believe that the sort of

life you wish to live is,

at this very moment,

just waiting for you

to summon it up.

And when you wish for it,

you begin moving toward it,

and it, in turn,

begins moving toward you."

-Suzan-Lori Parks (Playwright)commencement address at Mount Holyoke  in South Hadley, Massachusetts, May 27, 2001

(Click here for the entire speech)

During this past weekend, I attended a graduation in our community. One student of the graduating class gave a short, but truthful speech regarding the need to hold applause and celebration because they’ve only just crossed the threshold to begin their journey toward what they have yet to accomplish, thus the term commencement.

I found great enlightenment in her words, and while I’m well aware that students have only been given the skills that they must now apply to attain their dreams, a simple three letter word – yet – summed it up quite nicely.  This reminder could be observed by anyone of any age.

*You haven’t reached your dreams . . . yet.

*You haven’t found your purpose . . . yet.

*You haven’t found contentment . . . yet.

With just one word, the implication is that we still have time if we choose to continue to strive for our goal.  The quote I chose for this week’s inspiration ties in nicely I feel with the concept of the word “yet”.  A dream doesn’t arrive at our doorstep; we aren’t presented dreams simply because we have dreamt them.  We have to work, and work hard, very hard, for what we want to achieve.  We have to persevere through many moments where it seems we have reached a obstacle that is too formidable to conquer.  We have to gather up all of our pride after it has been ripped from us at times and continue to press forward.  It is not too late.  We simply haven’t reached our goal . . . yet.

Three women come to my mind immediately that didn’t achieve great success immediately, but as a result of trying new things, never being deterred and following their passions, found great success and have three of the most recognized names today in the world of literature and cooking – Jane Austen, Nelle Harper Lee and Julia Child.

Jane Austen, after her first unsuccessful attempt to be published at the age of 22, finally published her first book, Sense and Sensibility at the age of 36.  Nelle Harper Lee, the famous author of To Kill A Mockingbird, went to New York to become a writer against her father’s wishes and spent ten years writing and rewriting what is now an American classic, publishing it at the age of 34. And the beloved Julia Child didn’t even enter cooking school until she was 36, and the cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking wasn’t published until 1966 when Julia was 54.  

So . . . go . . . don’t delay . . . because those dreams of yours will be achieved . . . but first you must put in the effort and have the undying passion to achieve them.

 "You must knock on doors

until your knuckles bleed.

Doors will slam in your face.

You must pick yourself up,

dust yourself off, and knock again.

It’s the only way

to achieve your goals in life."

-Michael Uslan (Movie Producer)commencement address at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana,  May 06, 2006

Click here for the entire speech

Images: (1)  Fab Sugar

Opportunity to Refocus

“But nothing important, or meaningful,

or beautiful, or interesting,

or great ever came out of imitations.

The thing that is really hard,

and really amazing,

is giving up on being perfect

and beginning the work

of becoming yourself.”

-Anna Quindlen – Mount Holyoke College Commencement address - 1999

We have reached that time of the year.  A time when friends and family gather to celebrate the hard work of their beloved student having earned the right to cross the stage to receive their diploma and toss their cap in celebration.  A time when a new and adventurous path has the opportunity of being traveled.

While many of us have finished our years in school, I find myself always drawn to the brief snippets the news shares of commencement addresses whether it be by the President, a journalist, an educator, a professional athlete, an actor or anyone who has earned the invitation to speak to this year’s graduates.  (For a look at who is speaking where this year, take a look at Forbes list.) There usually is something from each speech that can be grabbed and applied to our own lives. 

While the welcoming of a new year tends to be the time people feel they need to set goals for the new life they want to achieve, the spring symbolically is, in my opinion, an even better time to ask ourselves, “Am I living the life I desire?  Am I making the most of my abilities?”  Yesterday, on CBS Sunday Morning, Ben Stein shared his thoughts on the benefits of graduating from the “right” school.  His immediate dismissal, stating that the school one graduates from is not a determining factor at all delighted me.  He defended his position by stating that the determining factors in any one of us acquiring success are: (1) having good work habits, (2) making a minute by minute effort to get along with the people we work with, and (3) harmonizing our goals with our talents.

After citing a handful of successful names, none of which had graduated from an Ivy League school, but had no doubt attained great success,  he continued to share the necessary requirements one must do once they find the path that does harmonize our goals with our talents: (1) use the talents we were born with, (2) never be afraid of taking risks or failing, (3) make sure to not act like a pre-Madonna, and (4) remain in the game until the finish line has been crossed. Fantastic advice that I know I can most definitely still use even though I am not of the graduating class anymore.

Anna Quindlen also had some thoughts regarding the degree one receives along with thousands of other students, and how to use it in our own unique way.  Have a look. (If you’d like to read her entire commencement address, simply click on the link below. Please do the same for her quote above as well.)

“You walk out of here this afternoon with only one thing that no one else has. There will be hundreds of people out there with your same degree; there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you will be the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk, or your life on a bus, or in a car, or at the computer. Not just the life of your minds, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank account, but your soul.”

– Villanova Commencement Address – 2000

Regardless of one’s age, position in life, decisions we have made up until this point, we can all heed the advice that will be a bit ubiquitous this month and next, and with determination allow it to propel us into the life we envision for ourselves.

 

Images: (1) Vi. Sualize (2) Things She Loves (3) Source (4) Tumblr (5) Pitchfork (6) We Heart It