Graduation

You cannot tell yourself where things would lead. Finding what you want to do next is a job, and like any job, you have to put in the hours.

You leave this school as well-armed for battle as anyone is. Now you actually have to go do it.

Great stories happen to those who can tell them. The world will not do your work for you, but it will meet you more than halfway if you go after what you want with energy and passion.

Hold fast to your dreams, for when dreams die, life is like a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.

It is not a disgrace to not reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. Not failure, but low aim, is sin.

There are absolutely no acceptable shortcuts to success in life. Cheating, for whatever reason and in any field, is wrong and is at best a temporary solution to a greater problem.

You are not special. You are not exceptional.

If everyone is special, then no one is. If everyone gets a trophy, trophies become meaningless.

The great and curious truth of the human experience is that selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself. The sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition that you're not special. Because everyone is.

Relax, dude! You just finished college at Harvard. You worked so hard. Trust me, you're gonna kill it.

Whatever it is you try, make sure it's what you really want to do, because the only person who knows what that is, is you.

In the days ahead, a lot of people will tell you to trust your instincts and don't be afraid to take chances, and I am definitely one of those people. But I would also say this: don't rush into the next phase of your life.