Invitations to graduation ceremonies and parties show up in my mailbox every day this time of year. While I’m not usually able to attend the events, I am somewhat of a commencement speech goon. I seek out and listen to these speeches year round. It’s a coping mechanism\u00a0I employ: as a person who spends most of her time making and creating things, I am naturally discouraged, sad, or hopeless with some frequency. And as I navigate problem after problem in a project, I probably have many of the same thoughts and occasional freakouts my students have on graduation day. Bad, good, and extraordinary commencement speeches help–albeit in different ways.<\/p>\n
So, for this weekend, here are excerpts from some of the best commencement speeches I have heard. The points made by these masterful rhetoricians have stayed with me year after year. I revisit them as needed.<\/p>\n
1). \u00a0You can fail at what you don’t want\u00a0<\/em>by Jim Carrey\u00a0(29 secs)<\/p>\n