Oh, the places you'll go: Advice for 2008 graduates

Excerpts From 2008 Commencement Speeches

Maya Angelou
Poet
Cornell University

Let us take time out, so that by-and-by, we can say, I did take time to help someone's life...The chore on you is to make this country better than it is today.

Human beings are more alike than we are un-alike. I am a human being. Nothing human can be alien to me...People of my generation are ashamed of the world we are leaving...I am. I just wish we hadn't left a world full of blood thirst, ignorance, and hatred... This is your world now, and it's up to you.

Barack Obama
Democratic Candidate for President of the United States
Wesleyan College

I say this to you as someone who couldn't be standing here today if not for the service of others, and wouldn't be standing here today if not for the purpose that service gave my own life.

You see, I spent much of my childhood adrift. My father left my mother and I when I was two. When my mother remarried, I lived in Indonesia for a time, but was mostly raised in Hawaii by her and my grandparents from Kansas. My teenage years were filled with more than the usual dose of adolescent rebellion, and I'll admit that I didn't always take myself or my studies very seriously. I realize that none of you can probably relate to this, but there were many times when I wasn't sure where I was going, or what I would do.

But during my first two years of college, perhaps because the values my mother had taught me -hard work, honesty, empathy - had resurfaced after a long hibernation; or perhaps because of the example of wonderful teachers and lasting friends, I began to notice a world beyond myself. I became active in the movement to oppose the apartheid regime of South Africa. I began following the debates in this country about poverty and health care. So that by the time I graduated from college, I was possessed with a crazy idea - that I would work at a grassroots level to bring about change...

Now each of you will have the chance to make your own discovery in the years to come...  You won't have to take it.  There's no community service requirement in the outside world.  No one's forcing you to care.  You can take your diploma... and chase after the big house and the nice suits and the other things that our money culture says you should buy.  You can chose to narrow your concerns and live life in a way that tries to keep your story separate from America's.  But I hope you don't...

Because, our individual salvation depends on collective salvation.  Because thinking only about yourself, fulfilling your immediate wants and needs betrays a poverty of ambition.  Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential and discover the role that you will play in writing the next great chapter in the American Story.

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf
President of Liberia
Dartmouth College

Many of you may not achieve the distinctions of these heroes and role models that dominate our history but I want you to know that each of you has the potential to make that difference in whatever you do.

You will be expected to be highly competent with knowledge and understanding that enable you to stand out among your colleagues. To be successful, you will need to be prepared to go the extra mile and to spend time to improve the structures and systems with which you are called to work.

You will need to maintain a high level of integrity, sometimes going against the accepted norms and procedures, particularly in countries and conditions know for corruption.

You will have to be courageous, standing firm and sometimes alone for those policies and strategies that represent the best approach for achieving development goals. When you see something wrong, you will need to have the courage to stand up and say so. You will need to demonstrate leadership, the ability to inspire, to motive others to emulate you and to join you in the achievement of the goals.

But you can draw strength and comfort from the fact that the lessons of history will be on your side. The achievers of this world are those who are ready to be persistent, work hard, remain consistent and stay focused on your goals to make the world a better place.

In so doing, you will need to become agents of change - change for a better world; sometimes change for a world uncongenial to human happiness; change that makes the world a better place for all humanity; change that actualizes the universal values of freedom, liberty, justice, equality; change that ensures the unity and progress of the human family. For positive change to make a difference in one's life and in the lives of greater humanity, people must be inspired to challenge, reform and transform existing conditions of life, especially where our most cherished universal values are trampled upon by those whose goals are to circumvent the path of peace and human upliftment, or to wrest the good things of life for themselves at the disadvantage of a weaker humanity.

In human experience, to make a difference in one's life is to be successful; and success requires a continuing struggle to overcome adversity as a basis for our preparation to serve mankind.

Quincy Jones
Producer
University of Washington

On this day, I will mend a quarrel. I will search out a forgotten friend... I will dismiss a suspicion and replace it with trust...Not one drop of my self worth depends on your acceptance of me.

Robin Roberts
TV Host
Miami University

You have to put yourself in position to make good things happen...The bottom line -- when I was sitting where you are, I had no idea I would be working at 'Good Morning America' co-anchoring with the incredible Diane Sawyer.

Juan Williams
Author & TV Commentator
Lafayette College

What do graduation speeches and good biscuits have in common? The answer is: both are better with a little shortening.

Yes, parents: congratulations! Our greatest teachers are often our parents. It's been said that an ounce of mom is worth a ton of priests, and one little bit of dad is worth a thousand teachers. So today, parents, you learn the answer to one of life's ancient mysteries: when does life begin? As you know, some argue that life begins at conception; others argue that life begins at birth. But today you truly discover that life begins when the kids get out of college.

And congratulations to the students. Congratulations today, Class of 2008, today is your day! You've made it through late nights of study, through tough tests. The world awaits your energy, your ideas. The world hungers for your talent. Today is not an end for you; it is truly the starting line, an opportunity to use your education, to use your spiritual powers, your confidence as committed people to help shape this world.

You have to understand that the genius, the true genius, that you see demonstrated in this world is the genius that comes from people who are passionate, from people who care deeply, from people who are dedicated to a cause.

In a time of so much change, how will you, the graduates of 2008, find your place? Some people will appeal to you to scapegoat, to hate, to point fingers at the poor, minorities, immigrants. I ask you, good people, to be role models, to seek to inspire your community - our community - to common ground and common understanding by offering solutions to problems, and not sitting in bitterness, not sitting in those problems.

But don't worry about all of us. Don't worry about your parents, the faculty, those of us who have been honored this day. I would ask you from my heart instead to worry about yourselves. I would ask that you surprise yourselves. Talk with people that you never thought you would talk with. Travel to places you thought you would never go. Dare yourselves to achieve things that are seemingly beyond your grasp. Reach out, reach out and challenge yourselves in such a way that you will say, "I didn't know I was up to it. I didn't know that I could do that."

Oprah Winfrey
Talk Show Host & Media Mogul
Stanford University

Forget about the fast lane. If you really want to fly, just harness your power to your passion. Honor your calling. Everybody has one. Trust your heart and success will come to you.

So, how do I define success? Let me tell you, money's pretty nice. I'm not going to stand up here and tell you that it's not about money, 'cause money is very nice. I like money. It's good for buying things.

But having a lot of money does not automatically make you a successful person. What you want is money and meaning. You want your work to be meaningful. Because meaning is what brings the real richness to your life. What you really want is to be surrounded by people you trust and treasure and by people who cherish you. That's when you're really rich.