A Message to the Class of 2021

Graduation day is a period of excitement, of anticipation. It’s the day you look forward to for years, perhaps decades, where you get to celebrate your accomplishments and look ahead to the next phase of your life with optimism. A life full of experiences, of future milestones like your first job, buying your first home, maybe settling down with a partner, your loved one, and starting your new life.

But for many students today, graduation might feel like a letdown. A disappointment. Maybe you had expectations of already having the job of your dreams, or moving to a new city and that’s no longer possible, or even just having a big party that never happened. Disappointment either destroys you or drives you, and it’s up to you to decide which.

To get to where you are today, it’s taken a tremendous amount of focus, sacrifice, hard work, and perhaps most of all, discipline. I encourage you now to channel that skill of discipline, of trained self-control, to take the disappointment you feel turn it into gratitude for what you do have, instead of focusing on what’s missing.

It’s so easy to focus on what you don’t have. But what we have now is a world that is opening back up and an economy that is gaining momentum. We have each other. We have a chance to be healthy and strong. We have ways to change our world – we have our creativity, our courage, and our intelligence. We have anything we want to make happen.

If you trade your expectations for appreciation, your whole world changes in an instant. 

You’re in a stage of life where you get to write the story of your life, and you're going to make tons of mistakes. And if you focus on the mistakes, you'll feel overwhelmed, you'll see what you missed. But if you learn from them all, you'll see every experience of your life has gifts for you. Train your brain to look for those gifts. What’s wrong is always available, but so is what’s right.

So take this crisis – this past year that everyone wrote off and turned into internet memes about how terrible and disappointing it was – and turn it into your transformation. The beginning of your story, not the end. 

Every person's life is a story. Some people's story is a warning, and some people's stories are an example. Right now you're an example of someone that's growing and expanding, and you have a chance to have this most incredible life.

But it won't be a life without challenge. And the challenges we're facing right now give you an opportunity to grow, like very few generations. I'm sure you've heard of the Great Generation. These are your great-grandparents, the ones who made it through the Great Depression and not one but two world wars! 

If watch a great movie, if you read a great book, you know that the size and the power of the hero is defined by how tough an obstacle you face. How difficult is the villain, the opponent?

Sometimes, when I've been through the toughest times in my life, one of the things I say to myself is, “Finally, I have a worthy opponent!” It might scare the hell out of me or challenge me to the point where I don’t think I can succeed. But I also know in my gut and my soul that if I can push this, just like you've done in these years, you've pushed through tough times, you become more. And as you become more, something magical happens. You don't just grow, you expand in your spirit and your soul and your capacity and your skill. And all of a sudden, fear becomes less and less a part of you.  

Because in the end, there are only two options: Suffer or grow. If you're suffering, you haven't grown yet. Grow into a new set of beliefs that take you beyond the focus of limitation to what's truly possible.

 So congratulations on this beautiful day, even though it may be challenging in all kinds of ways. Remember, a worthy opponent is what creates a great hero and you've got a great story to write. You've already written a beautiful story to start with. But I know that you will create your compelling future and you will build a life that is truly magnificent – because you are not the manager of circumstances, but the architect of your life experience.