As delivered at the Deer Lakes High School graduation in June of 2014. Imagine it being delivered with moderate confidence by a cute younger me.
As Mr. Orr so nicely put it I am number 2 the class of 2014. Never before have I received so prestigious an honor that includes the privilege to write an extra homework assignment and then to read in front of a large crowd.
I recently read a psychological study that looked at a topic I found very interesting. In the study, a group of 95 year olds were asked one open-ended question: What, if anything, do you wish you had done differently in life? There were three responses that were consistently present.
The first response was: I wish I had taken more risk. When people said they wish that they had taken more risks, I tend to think that the for the most part they weren’t talking about playing the lottery more often. I think what they meant was that they wished they had stepped out of their comfort zone more often in order to pursue the things that would make them happy. They wish they had taken the last shot in that big game, applied to that college, kissed that girl, or chosen that career that they were really passionate about. The only people who really make it big in this life are the ones who are willing to risk everything to pursue their goals. On the Forbes 400 billionaires list there are more dropouts than PhDs. The list of dropouts includes 21st Century icons Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg. This is certainly not because these successful people didn’t value education, but because they were willing to bet everything they had on themselves.
The second idea was: I wish I had left a more lasting legacy. As these people approached the end of their lives and as the value of material goods faded they wished they had done more to impact the world around them. People wish that instead of being a product of their environment, they had made their environment a product of their efforts. What we have before us is an opportunity to do just that. With everybody using their specific skill set to positively impact their world, we can make progress on every front, stomping out the world’s problems a little bit a time.
The final wish was: I wish I had taken more time to reflect on and appreciate life while it was happening. I think as a class we have an opportunity to do that here today. I can truly say that I enjoyed the company of most everyone here at some point in the last 12 years, and that I’ve made a number of very close friends. I’ll never forget playing Frisbee in gym class or basketball with the neighbors, or cheese pizza on Friday nights, so good. I’d like to think that everybody here has some positive memories of their years at Deer Lakes, and I know we have a lot of people to thank for that. We had a number of teachers, coaches, and staff who went above and beyond the call of duty to help us succeed. So I’d like to thank everybody who worked to help us get to this point, and to give us the unique opportunity we have before us: The chance to put all our chips on whatever makes us happy so that when we are 95 years old we can look back fondly on the enriching and rewarding life we created for ourselves. Thank you.
