Graduation Speech

To those newly graduated

Academically emancipated from ivied, ivory collegiate towers

So eager to apply your education, cashing in on the investment made in you Marketing your degree to the highest bidder

Work and travel to many places to gain life experience

See what is out there in this world and find your place in it

Do this now so that you will not look back with hindsight and regret

For you will learn more now than you ever did in college

Carve out a niche for yourself, make your mark if you can

Before you meet your occupational fate for a job may stifle your creativity, tie you down with strings of a steady paycheck, paid holidays, stability, and complacency

You will barely bat an eyelash before 15 years on the job have gone by and you are too young to retire and too old to start anew

You will look up in the mirror in the ladies’ room with strained eyes and gray hair and realize that 35 years have gone by and retirement is looming, wondering where all the time went

Hopefully, you will have something to show for your toil other than the car and the house; for some, that is enough, but for those whose spirit cannot be contained, now is the time to take chances, make mistakes, for the pill of pride is easier to swallow when you are young

Open your mind to what this world has to reveal to you before

You close it off with age, fatigue, and fear

Your time is now; do not wait for the right moment for it may ever be right in your mind’s eye take the time you have now and make it your moment so that you may shine brightly in the sun as this is the sunrise of your new life

Now go to the horizon and visualize your potential to achieve greatness

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