Commencement: Not Just for Seniors

Yesterday was the last day of school for my high school students and tonight my first class of seniors will be graduating. It seems like the past couple of weeks have been spent with me telling tales of trials and triumphs from my college days to prepare them for what they will encounter and what opportunities are waiting for them and instilling any words of wisdom, advice, and hope that I can into their minds before they leave the protective walls of my classroom. I've got big dreams planted into each and every one of those kids and I want them to live so that they can dream dreams of their own and see them come to reality. I want them to change the world.

Graduation ceremonies are designed to voice those same thoughts. And I always think to myself, what would I say to a group of teenagers about to set out in the world on their own? Would I tell them practical things, like "don't wash colors with whites with hot water", or would I tell them cliche but important things, like "always work hard and you'll achieve your goals", or would I take another route? Think of all the things that a person has to learn to survive in this world! And then yesterday as I was telling a student that the only limits she has would be the ones she put on herself, I realized that maybe my students aren't the only ones needing to pay attention to good advice right now. I think that maybe we all need to listen to those graduation speeches again. I think we all need a new sense of excitement and hope as we look to the future.

So today I am posting a few good parting thoughts for the school year. Look at them as if you're just starting out on a journey, because that's what we are all doing every day.


From Michael Jordan: "You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them."

From Charles Swindoll “We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”

From Winston Churchill: "Now is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. It is, perhaps the end of the beginning."

From Yoda: "Do or do not. There is no try."

From Woody Allen: "Seventy percent of success in life is showing up."

From Edward Albee: "Sometimes it’s necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly."

From Brian Tracy: “Most people achieved their greatest success one step beyond what looked like their greatest failure.”

From Corita Kent: "Love the moment, and the energy of that moment will spread beyond all boundaries."

From R.E. Shay: "Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember it didn't work for the rabbit."

From Richard L. Evans: "Everyone who got where he is had to begin with where he was.

From Charles Richter: "Don't wait for extraordinary circumstance to do good; try to use ordinary situations."

From Pope John XXIII: “Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.”

From Edward Abbey "May all your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view......where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you."

and from Saint Theresa: "May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us."

Happy Graduation.