The one line I remember from my college commencement ceremony...

Our late May graduation was outdoors. A textbook hot and humid day in Washington, DC. The dean and faculty were seated up front, on a stage, in a climate-controlled tent. And I was regretting wearing a dress shirt and tie underneath my black commencement gown.

Each graduate would be called forward, cross the stage and receive their diploma after the obligatory handshake. The graduation was all perfectly scripted and choreographed. Until this happened...

The dean of the undergraduate business school, a suit-wearing McKinsey alum, took a moment to recognize the three students in the class who had achieved a 4.0 grade average. He looked up from his prepared remarks and scanned the audience. Then he called the valedictorians forward and paused, before uttering these words:

"That's, uh, pretty awesome."

You know what, he was right. These three students had battled for four years through philosophy, language, theology and business classes...and had aced them all. A predictable "congratulations on a job well done" was expected, and would have gone unnoticed.

But he went off script, adopted some lingo of the day, and made the moment memorable.

So the next time you are addressing a conference or giving a shout-out in a company all-hands, find some space to be authentic, to be real.

To be, uh, pretty awesome.