This life is yours to fill. Nobody will taste it but you, so you should only be looking to fill it with those tasty bites you want to savor.
Rita Dove
University of Virginia Commencement 2016, 2016
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Dove's fourth wish was for 'The Future,' and she approached it with the paradox that only a poet would appreciate: the best way to prepare for the future is to stop trying to predict it. She told the graduates that success is 'loving what you're doing more than who people think you are,' and happiness is getting so involved in something that time literally flies. Then she offered this vivid metaphor of life as a meal that only you will taste. It was both liberating and sobering — liberating because it freed the graduates from living by other people's standards, and sobering because it placed the full weight of responsibility on them. If your life is bland or unfulfilling, you can't blame the chef. You are the chef.