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And it was quite good! Commencement addresses tend to range from tedious to unbearable, but O’Brien’s speech before the graduates of Dartmouth College was both funny and practical:
Eleven years ago I gave an address to a graduating class at Harvard. I have not spoken at a graduation since because I thought I had nothing left to say. But then 2010 came. And now I’m here, three thousand miles from my home, because I learned a hard but profound lesson last year and I’d like to share it with you. In 2000, I told graduates “Don’t be afraid to fail.” Well now I’m here to tell you that, though you should not fear failure, you should do your very best to avoid it. Nietzsche famously said “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” But what he failed to stress is that it almost kills you. Disappointment stings and, for driven, successful people like yourselves it is disorienting. What Nietzsche should have said is “Whatever doesn’t kill you, makes you watch a lot of Cartoon Network and drink mid-price Chardonnay at 11 in the morning.”
Video Link and Transcript -via Ace of Spades HQ
Is it graduation time again already? Scholars, politicians, and celebrities will soon travel to various colleges and universities to address the class of 2010. Some will make more of an impression than others. In today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss, see how well you can identify commencement speakers of the past by a quote from their speeches. I scored 70%, not because I recall the speeches, but because I recognized the style. Link
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Frank Warren, the artist behind Post Secret, recently delivered the commencement address at St. Mary’s College in Maryland. In preparation for it, he asked members of the graduating class to write a one-sentence response to the question “What do my classmates, and I, need to hear on Graduation Day?” Here are a few of his responses:
Be wise enough not to be reckless, but brave enough to take great risks.
It’s okay to fail – learn from it and you will succeed.
It’s better to be pissed-off than pissed-on.
If you were to asked to deliver a commencement speech that was only one sentence long, what would it be?
