COMMENCEMENT
I was watching President Obama give his commencement speech at Notre Dame today and it sparked me to revisit an idea I had some time ago. I had this question come up in my mind “What if I was asked to give a commencement speech? What would I say?” I don’t think anyone’s going to ask me to do that any time soon, but I wondered what I would say to the class of 2009. Would I be optimistic or pessimistic? Would I tell them the truth about life as an adult or would I sugar coat it? I really wanted to see what came out of my head, so I thought I’d write down to see what I’d say. Here it goes…
“Hello class of 2009. My name is Matt Helt. Thank you for inviting me here today to share my thoughts on what your life is going to look like after college.”
“First of all, let me start out by saying how fortunate you are. You may think you worked hard to earn your degree, and for a small percentage of you there’s probably some truth to that. Most of you, though, coasted right through with your B or C average. You woke up every morning, threw on your sweat pants and hoodie, and walked to your class. You sat there disinterested, taking a few notes, thinking about what to eat for lunch. This basically goes on for four years and then the university says you completed all the requirements for a degree.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not bashing you for being fortunate. I was the same way. I floated through college without a care in the world. I graduated magna cum laude and barely opened a book. I’m not that smart. I just figured out very early on how to play the game. Every class I took was basically a course in critical thinking. Every professor I had a class with had a way he or she wanted you to play the critical thinking game. Figure it out early enough, and you have a pretty good chance of passing the class.”
“Is the system broken? Not necessarily. I just think a college degree isn’t that important. It’s definitely not a measure of who you are as a person. It just means you were willing to play that particular game. There are tons of examples of highly successful people who never spent the time getting a degree. I wanted nothing more than to get done with college as quickly as possible because I saw it as the antithesis of the real world. There were several times I wanted to drop out and get on with my life. But I didn’t. I stuck it out, just like you.”
“So what does your degree earn you in the real world? Well, many employers say it’s the first thing they look for. This is understandable because it’s a way for them to filter out resumes. If you don’t have a degree, they won’t interview you. Which is a shame. You could be the most talented, self-taught whatever, but you’re immediately cut out of the process.”
“But none of you have to worry about this - you all have your degree. You can put B.A. or B.S. underneath the ‘Education’ line on your resume. Congratulations. You’re through to the next round. Maybe you’ll get an interview, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll get that job with the Fortune 500 company of your dreams, or maybe you’ll work in a small cubicle next to a guy named Doug who’s been in his job for 15 years now. What’s more likely? You sitting next Doug.”
“Unfortunately, most of you will end up in a cubicle. This is just a fact of modern American business. Cubicles are no different than cages. Yet most of us tolerate them. We say to Mr. or Mrs. Employer ‘Sure, put me inside a small padded room with a computer and a phone, I don’t mind! Oh, I can’t look outside? That’s okay, sunlight is overrated.’ This is what life is like for most people working for a corporation. Don’t believe me? Just wait. You’ll have an opportunity to experience it yourself.”
“Now, I’m not here to tell you that real life sucks. But I am here to warn you. It’s very easy to fall into their trap. Your future employer will try every way they can to make you buy into their philosophy. And their messengers are the folks in Human Resources. They’ll act like your best friend, then cut your throat when the big guys and gals upstairs tell them to. Believe me, I’ve seen it. If you see HR walking through your cube farm with security following them, then that means today is firing day. I don’t know how many times I starting packing up my belongings when those days came around. Most of the time they weren’t coming for me. But on other days, I was on the list. It ain’t fun. They’ll tell you it’s not personal, it’s just business. They’re lying.”
“Businesses also try to create an artificial sense of community. ‘We care about your career!’ No they don’t. It’s a stall tactic. They make it seem like they’re investing in you, but all they’re really doing is making you want to stay. Once they have no use for you, you’re gone. There’s no loyalty on their part, but they’ll tell you they care all day long.”
“So what can you do? First of all, throw most of what you learned these last 4 or 5 years in the garbage. Yeah, I know it sucked having to sit through a semester of cell biology, but you won’t use it. Nor will you use that philosophy class or sociology class. They wasted your time. Your first job won’t ask you to quote Kant or explain the concentric zone theory of metropolitan development. They’ll say here’s your computer, make us more money. If you’re a science major or mathematics major, then there’s a good chance you’ll use some of what you learned. But eventually your bosses will want the same thing.”
“Like I said earlier, for most of you, this is what your life will look like. You will grow to tolerate this and so will your spouse. Both of you will live this way until you retire. After retirement, you’ll set yourself up so that you can live near a beach or golf course and spend your days recreating. Ah, the American dream - put up with crap your whole life only to die a slow death during retirement.”
“For some of you in this room, life won’t be this way. You’ll choose a harder life. You’ll have this itch to do things your own way. You will risk everything to live a life that matters. You’ll fail sometimes, and win sometimes. But in the end what you did mattered. The world changed because you decided you didn’t like the way things operated. And when it comes time for you to retire, you’ll fight like hell not to. Your job was never a job. It was passion. It was living a life according to what your heart told you to do. For too many years I listened to my head. I did the safe thing and suffered for it. Safe was nearly the death of me. Now I take risks. Calculated risks, yes, but risks nonetheless. Taking risks gives you a reward. There’s no reward in playing it safe. There’s only compensation with safe. Rewards only come when you stick your neck out there and do something positive.”
“So now that I’ve got you all scared, let me tell you a secret. There’s hope for you. You are the only one controlling your life. There will always be external forces tugging at you to fit into the fold, but if you listen to your heart, then you win. Your heart will tell you which way to go. Your heart will let you know what feels right. Your head has a way of betraying you. It rationalizes things and gets you stuck. Don’t fall for it. After all, how rational is life anyway? Life is a magical, mystical thing. The very idea of it is crazy. Yet you exist. Make something happen with that magical thing you’ve been given.”
“Class of 2009, I say to you with the utmost sincerity, please do something meaningful with your life. Don’t give in to corporations who only want to use you to make more money. Don’t waste your days trying to make as much money as possible. Money is useless. Use your time to build community. Use your time to care about the world around you. Be open. Care about people. Respect diversity. Seek to understand those things that scare you. Fear is often the result of miscommunication. Understand that your religion does not make you better than those who have different beliefs. Often times you’ll find that you share the same beliefs, they’re just taught in a different way. Throw your ego away. You may be smart, but there’s always an opportunity to learn something new, especially from those who you think you have nothing to learn anything from. And above all, be present in the moment. All you have is right now. Yesterday is gone, and tomorrow is an idea. This very moment is the only thing that is real. Try your best to recognize it. If you do that, then you’re more likely to listen to your heart. Your head speaks of past and future, but your heart operates according to one clock - the clock of now.”
“My one wish for you is that you experience fully the life you’ve been given.”