Embrace your journey to your own potential. It wasn't until I stopped worrying about my own validation and finally refocused my energy on things I could actually change that I finally grew as a person and as a professional.
speech graduation growth
Alex Smith
University of Utah Commencement 2014, 2014
If what you want is different than what you have, then you need to change what you are doing.
speech graduation courage
Alex Smith
University of Utah Commencement 2014, 2014
These stories we tell about ourselves — they're almost like our infrastructure, like railroads or highways. We can build them almost any way we want to. But once they're in place, this whole inner landscape grows up around them.
speech graduation self discovery
Emir Kamenica
Shepherd University Commencement 2014, 2014
When you try hard at everything you do, even if it feels utterly foolish to do so, you're opening up future doors and possibilities that you might not be seeing in the moment.
speech graduation perseverance
Ed Helms
Cornell University Commencement 2014, 2014
When you achieve your dreams, it's not so much what you get — it's who you become.
speech graduation growth
Diana Nyad
Middlebury College Commencement 2014, 2014
If you're the kind of person who is scared and courageous at the same time, you might end up doing big things.
speech graduation courage
David Carr
UC Berkeley School of Journalism Commencement 2014, 2014
Don't do what makes you happy. Do what makes you great. Do what's uncomfortable and scary and hard but pays off in the long run. Be willing to fail. Let yourself fail. Fail in the way and the place where you would be proud to fail.
speech graduation failure
Charlie Day
Merrimack College Commencement 2014, 2014
Ideally, we lose ourselves in what we read only to return to ourselves transformed, and part of a more expansive world.
speech graduation education
Judith Butler
McGill University Honorary Doctorate Address 2013, 2013
Your life is going to be a gradual process of becoming kinder and more loving. Hurry up. Speed it along. Start right now.
speech graduation empathy
George Saunders
Syracuse University Convocation 2013, 2013
The real hero's journey is the journey from strength to weakness.
speech graduation humility
John Green
Butler University Commencement 2013, 2013
For in learning how to be a nobody, you will learn how not to be a jerk. You will tip well. You will empathize. You will be a mentor, and a generous one.
speech graduation humility
John Green
Butler University Commencement 2013, 2013
Don't get comfortable. Ever. If you're not too comfortable, it's always easier to leave, to move on, and hopefully to move up.
speech graduation growth
Sharyn Alfonsi
University of Mississippi Meek School of Journalism Commencement 2013, 2013