2017 Baccalaureate Speech:
It’s common for people in my place to quote the words of wise men and women who came before us. There’s some of that in my remarks, because I myself have been inspired by the words of great people. I hope my words today are able to reach your young and excited minds for your benefit, because whenever I speak at graduation or baccalaureate or when students ask me during class for some advice, I find myself saying what I wish a young Adam Bulgrien could have heard -- and taken to heart -- twenty years ago. That’s right, I graduated twenty years ago. Time really does fly by. It doesn’t feel like it’s been that long.
I think it’s fitting to start with the words of Winston Churchill, who said, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” He was talking about his country’s first significant victory in World War II, but his words apply to today as well.
To the graduating class of 2017, congratulations… on the end of the beginning... and the start of something new. So much is going to change in a very short time. You cannot be fully prepared for it. And that’s part of the fun. In the next few years, many of you will leave home to live on your own for the first time. Or you will start a new career, perhaps even start your own businesses. Some will leave Michigan, and many will start families. Others will enroll in colleges or universities and earn degrees.
And really, I think that all of these changes are the best part about graduation, because it is this week that marks the start of something new for each and every one of you graduates, whether you want it to or not.
Upon graduation, you must do something different. You will not be allowed back into the school every day. I think most of you think that’s a good thing. I couldn’t help but notice that no one shows up to my third hour anymore... No one is there to ask me for some poetry or short stories to read. Even though I only have stuff that is so… good...
When -- if? -- you come back to the school, you will need to check in at the office to get a sticker that says “visitor,” because the high-school you is the old you. Whether you want to or not, you must do something different now, and you should take the opportunity to do something better now.
Doing something better, becoming someone better, doesn’t just happen.
You have to have a plan.
When I went to college, I had the goal of being a better student than when I was in high school, but it was just a vague, general notion of “being better,” and that’s why it took me almost two years and some warnings and close calls before I finally got it together. I didn’t actually plan what it would take to be a good student before I went to college, and -- as the saying goes -- failing to plan might as well be planning to fail.
You will graduate on Friday, and so you have a small matter of time left before your life after graduation starts. Some of you have just the rest of this week, and that’s it. Many of you have a matter of weeks or two to three months. Whatever time you have left, this is a critical moment in your life, and you should use it to come up with your plan, even if it changes some later.
I suggest you actually write down your goals and organize your priorities in a list. If you put those where you will see them frequently, you will greatly increase the chances of your success.
For much of my professional career, I’ve focused on habits, both mine and those of my students. Over the years, I’ve talked to my classes about the development and strengthening of good habits, and that’s because I’ve come to realize that Ben Franklin was right when he said, “It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.”
There are countless possible bad habits you could develop in your potential futures: as a student, as an employee, as an adult son or daughter, and as a parent. Don’t start those bad habits. Don’t let them take root so they are difficult to remove later.
With the start of a new lifestyle, this may be the best chance you ever have to improve yourself. You’re old enough to make conscious decisions for your own good, and you shouldn’t be stuck in your ways when it comes to what is next for you, because whatever it is is still in your future -- your very near future, and that’s why this is important now.
I have a few suggestions for good habits, if these aren’t your habits already:
This is your chance for you to become someone better, but it won’t happen on its own or by accident. This is your chance to set lofty goals or to rededicate yourself to your goals, and with a plan that will help you reach them. This is your best chance to be better now because you can start whatever it is you do next the right way -- the way you would have started it if you could look back twenty years from today and tell a young you what you should do… what you should spend time on… what you should avoid… and how you should live your life.
This is the end of your beginning.
This is your opportunity! And I urge you to make the most of it.
Thank you.
It’s common for people in my place to quote the words of wise men and women who came before us. There’s some of that in my remarks, because I myself have been inspired by the words of great people. I hope my words today are able to reach your young and excited minds for your benefit, because whenever I speak at graduation or baccalaureate or when students ask me during class for some advice, I find myself saying what I wish a young Adam Bulgrien could have heard -- and taken to heart -- twenty years ago. That’s right, I graduated twenty years ago. Time really does fly by. It doesn’t feel like it’s been that long.
I think it’s fitting to start with the words of Winston Churchill, who said, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” He was talking about his country’s first significant victory in World War II, but his words apply to today as well.
To the graduating class of 2017, congratulations… on the end of the beginning... and the start of something new. So much is going to change in a very short time. You cannot be fully prepared for it. And that’s part of the fun. In the next few years, many of you will leave home to live on your own for the first time. Or you will start a new career, perhaps even start your own businesses. Some will leave Michigan, and many will start families. Others will enroll in colleges or universities and earn degrees.
And really, I think that all of these changes are the best part about graduation, because it is this week that marks the start of something new for each and every one of you graduates, whether you want it to or not.
Upon graduation, you must do something different. You will not be allowed back into the school every day. I think most of you think that’s a good thing. I couldn’t help but notice that no one shows up to my third hour anymore... No one is there to ask me for some poetry or short stories to read. Even though I only have stuff that is so… good...
When -- if? -- you come back to the school, you will need to check in at the office to get a sticker that says “visitor,” because the high-school you is the old you. Whether you want to or not, you must do something different now, and you should take the opportunity to do something better now.
Doing something better, becoming someone better, doesn’t just happen.
You have to have a plan.
When I went to college, I had the goal of being a better student than when I was in high school, but it was just a vague, general notion of “being better,” and that’s why it took me almost two years and some warnings and close calls before I finally got it together. I didn’t actually plan what it would take to be a good student before I went to college, and -- as the saying goes -- failing to plan might as well be planning to fail.
You will graduate on Friday, and so you have a small matter of time left before your life after graduation starts. Some of you have just the rest of this week, and that’s it. Many of you have a matter of weeks or two to three months. Whatever time you have left, this is a critical moment in your life, and you should use it to come up with your plan, even if it changes some later.
I suggest you actually write down your goals and organize your priorities in a list. If you put those where you will see them frequently, you will greatly increase the chances of your success.
For much of my professional career, I’ve focused on habits, both mine and those of my students. Over the years, I’ve talked to my classes about the development and strengthening of good habits, and that’s because I’ve come to realize that Ben Franklin was right when he said, “It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.”
There are countless possible bad habits you could develop in your potential futures: as a student, as an employee, as an adult son or daughter, and as a parent. Don’t start those bad habits. Don’t let them take root so they are difficult to remove later.
With the start of a new lifestyle, this may be the best chance you ever have to improve yourself. You’re old enough to make conscious decisions for your own good, and you shouldn’t be stuck in your ways when it comes to what is next for you, because whatever it is is still in your future -- your very near future, and that’s why this is important now.
I have a few suggestions for good habits, if these aren’t your habits already:
- Do what you have to do first. You should still have plenty of time for what you want to do.
- More face time (lower-case letters) and less screen time. Be honest with yourself, and you’ll know if that applies to you or not.
- As much as you can, avoid going into debt, especially with credit cards. It’s so easy to get into the habit of spending more money than you have.
- And consider Albert Einstein’s words. He said, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
This is your chance for you to become someone better, but it won’t happen on its own or by accident. This is your chance to set lofty goals or to rededicate yourself to your goals, and with a plan that will help you reach them. This is your best chance to be better now because you can start whatever it is you do next the right way -- the way you would have started it if you could look back twenty years from today and tell a young you what you should do… what you should spend time on… what you should avoid… and how you should live your life.
This is the end of your beginning.
This is your opportunity! And I urge you to make the most of it.
Thank you.