Commencement Address

My father will soon deliver a commencement address as he accepts an honorary Doctor of Arts. He's given more than a few commencement addresses in his life. As for me, I've written one for a university here in the Flatland. But I did not present it. That address was uplifting, positive and optimistic because it's speaker was that way and because most such addresses are bright passages. The commencement address is a genre.

I wonder what I would say if I were given the opportunity to speak? Given that I like to break with genre, I think I would begin:

At universities across the country this afternoon, hundreds of thousands of graduates are being told "this is a special day." Those who speak these lines cannot know with any certainty if this is indeed a special day, but it is easy for them to say because it has been done so many times before in front of millions or possibly hundreds of millions of other graduates. The fact that so many people have heard these words is a warning to us that this is not a special day.

Sure, once upon a time it must have been so, when there were few colleges and only the very wealthy and very smart were permitted an education. But after World War II, the academy opened its doors to all students: the poor, the average. That, frankly, is a good thing. By opening the university to all young people, the university created new paths to upward mobility, opportunity and, what is more important, the very possibility of making something special happen.

So today May be a special day. But that distinction is not mine to call. It is yours. As you sit there listening, you must ask yourselves: "Is this a special day?" Is this a special day not because I close one phase of my life and open another and not because millions have already done this, but rather because I will take this degree and make something of myself. "Will I do something special with my degree," is the question you should be asking yourself. Will you use your knowledge and your new position in society to improve your communities, help the less fortunate, or save the planet? Or will you use this degree to get a job working in a windowless cubby hole selling widget insurance? If you choose the latter than today is merely an average day. If you choose the latter, than you have chosen to make of this a special day.