Among the most treasured and recalled rites of spring passage lie just ahead of us. Now from kindergarten through college, as well as post-graduate and doctoral studies, we have the time-honored tradition of Graduation Day. As late March and April bring us baseball opening day, cherry blossom and dogwood trees in bloom, proms and spring brides aplenty, you can already hear the strains of Pomp & Circumstance wafting from school gymnasiums and stadiums by high school orchestras and college bands.
Though I do a reasonable amount of public speaking, I have only once had the honor or distinction of addressing a graduation ceremony. I have attended plenty and will be in Auburn, Alabama in just a couple more weeks to celebrate the accomplishments of one of my twin nieces as she completes her studies at Auburn University. And though my own graduations, from high school and later college are now more decades ago than I care to admit, I can also still remember my elementary school class singing, "We've Only Just Begun," as we completed those early years in the DeKalb County School District, at the aptly named Heritage Elementary, my thoughts wander to what I wish some of my graduation speakers might have shared. Not just aspirations and platitudes, but some additional how-to basics on the benefits of perseverance, work ethic, and attitude.
I could not be prouder of my own firstborn, an honored scholar, hired immediately out of her undergraduate studies, now a young mother, educator, and entrepreneur, starting a business, while raising a family. But as I interview and attempt to hire and place or even give guidance to many of her Generation Z and even Millenial peers, I find an incredibly significant gap between their expectations and reality. Though I remained involved with my college fraternity, and leadership training for young men, I am particularly concerned about the long terms paths of the male half of our species.
And yes, I am both binary and traditionalist in noting our two primary genders and their differences, while also noting we should build, create and deliver a world where there is a place and value placed in everyone. To the graduates of tomorrow, and later this spring, you ARE special. You have the world and your lives ahead of you.
However, in business and multiple career paths, I have found no silver bullet or guaranteed quick path to success which did not involve some combination of these traits and priorities. Hard work, long hours, sacrifice, and spending many a night and weekend at the grindstone, paying dues, learning the ropes, and simply toiling at many of life's learning curves. There are few substitutes for kindness and treating others as you would prefer yourself and those you care about be treated.
Your 20s and 30s may bring some frivolous choices and excess, but also look around for signs of addiction, and dependency and again help your friends whose only good times seem to involve seeking or acquiring some mind or mood-altering substance to shift bad times into good. The reality which they may be fleeing will still be there in the morning. Given the surges in teen depression, anxiety, and suicide, while our parents and grandparents are here to help, and may also have contributed to some of these challenges, it is from your peer group as well as mental health professionals that you will most likely find a solution.
Today and your tomorrows are here to celebrate. But almost any accomplishment worth completing, like the diplomas coming to you soon, was preceded by years of hard work. You now have the technology and information at your fingertips that the world's greatest scholars would never have had the resources or the time available to consume. Exercise regularly, travel when opportunity affords you the luxury, eat well, and as your mother and every doctor I have ever known has told me...drink PLENTY of water. There are reasons you have been hearing some of these things since kindergarten and we now charge You with relaying and paying forward these life lessons appropriately.
I am smiling as well as crying for you. This is a great victory in life, but greater challenges still lie ahead for you. Let your classmates help you, teach you, and understand that those of us over 30 may still know a thing or two that we would be more than happy to share with you. ConGRADuation Day.
