Graduation Speech: May You Have Joy and Sorrow :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

I would like to begin my speech with these beautiful words of wisdom: "Not enjoyment and not sorrow is our destined end or way but to act that each tomorrow brings us farther than today." Did you hear that? "Not enjoyment and not sorrow is our destined end or way, but to act that each tomorrow brings us farther than today." What, do you all have hearts of stone? Where are the tears? Don't you see it even rhymes? Way-today, today-way, see that? I guess I sound a little too bitter about this don't I? I don't mean to. I am actually excited to be speaking here today, even to be speaking about the class motto. I don't agree with it, but that doesn't mean I can't spend three minutes talking about it. Those of you who know me reasonably well know that there's not much I couldn't spend three minutes talking about. I've been told that I talk a lot. But there I go already, back to the class motto. Not enjoyment and not sorrow, but to act. There are some things that I regret about the last four years of my life, but the enjoyment and the sorrow certainly aren't among them. Life is all about the happy and the sad, and it should be. I don't want every day of my life to be measured by what I accomplished over the day before. Certainly, there are areas in which we as a society could use progress and action, but that should never exclude enjoyment and sorrow from being a part of living. Today, especially of all days, we should be thinking of these things. I am not worried this 8th of June about what I can do to advance myself past where I was on the seventh. I am worried about the fact that it is entirely possible that I may never see some of you again in my life after tonight. Not my best friends certainly, but all of those people we enjoy saying "Hi" to between periods, someone from an old team or a class in ninth grade. That's sorrow. But then it's surely not all bad. It's summer, maybe not on the calendar, but in our mi nds. This is the summer of our senior year. These are the three months out of our lives that most of our parents can only dream of returning to.