2022 Commencement Address:
You know what today is, right? I think we all do.
As a sign of unity, let’s all say it together on the count of three. 1…2…3… Obi-Wan Kenobi. Disney+ released the first episodes of the show Obi-Wan Kenobi today. We finally made it to today…
First, let’s get some of the best advice I have out of the way right at the get go while everyone is still listening. If and when you get married, instead of renting tuxedos, buy suits. For real. I’ve been in quite a few weddings already (only one of my own… other people’s too…) but I could own that many nice suits for about the same price that I rented a tux for a day at a time. It’s something to consider.
Ladies, if you’re wondering about wedding-dress advice, you should know better than that. I’m sorry, I got nothin’.
The nicest person I’ve ever known was my Grandma Bulgrien. Her name was Iris. She was an amazing grandmother, and she had a permanent smile on her face. That doesn’t happen overnight.
The meanest person I’ve ever known was also quite old. I won’t tell you the person’s name, but he didn’t become that way overnight either. It makes me wonder about the choices they made to become what they were.
Maybe it was a coincidence that these two extremes were old compared to me. I do know some young people who are very nice, and some who are pretty mean already. I hope the latter can even things out a bit here soon…
If you take one thing from my speech tonight, it should be the suits instead of tuxes. Seriously, consider it.
But if you take just one more thing, I think it should be the word “choices.”
At least in our branch of the multiverse, we have countless choices throughout our lives. In fact, I looked it up, and some anonymous strangers on the Internet that I’m willing to trust without spending even a few seconds to vet them claim that the average adult makes around 35,000 decisions per day.
Who is the poor sucker who had to count all of those? Maniac…
Anyways, if we subtract about seven hours per day for sleep, that would mean we make around 2,000 decisions per hour, or one decision every two seconds or so.
A decision every two seconds just sounds redonkulous unless these are the most minor types of decisions. At that rate, most of them would have to be inconsequential choices. (Quick side note: Google’s spell checker didn’t flag the word redonkulous. We’re making progress…)
I think we don’t realize how many decisions we make each day because for most of them we fall back on our established routine. But over time our choices add up to make a significant portion of what we become, and it’s interesting to think about ourselves as the result of all the decisions we’ve made up to this point.
“But Mr. Bulgrien, a lot of things happen to us, and we have little to no control over them. You yourself say that when you teach plays and books like Oedipus Rex, The Grapes of Wrath, and 1984.”
That’s true, imaginary person that I created to argue with, and thank you for paying attention. I’m just talking about the things we can control, because it’s often possible to pause for a moment to think about it, especially since our choices add up and can become the habits and routines that dominate our lives, for good or for bad.
I’ll tell you the first time I heard someone say “choices” like this. Years ago, I started asking students at the beginning of class if there’s anything on their minds before we get going. One time this girl decides she wants to tell us about a date she went on. I thought, “Uh oh, here we go…” but she said the guy pulled up in his car and just honked the horn. Didn’t come to the door. Didn’t come meet her parents. Didn’t even get out of the car. Her mom said one word to her, “choices,” and let her decide what to do.
She went out and got in the car… and had the worst time of her life with this rude and inconsiderate boy. She said she should have known better. She knew right away she deserved more respect from this dude, and she learned about herself and about her own standards.
Even in the seemingly little things, it’s worth it to pause once in a while to remind ourselves that we have choices all the time, and one example is how we spend all of our time. Watching sports all day? Playing video games all night? Non-stop scrolling through social media?
One thing I like to do a couple times a year is have students check their average screen time. It’s often a surprise to them, which indicates they haven’t stopped to think about it. I believe a few people on stage behind me right now averaged well over 8 hours of screen time per day when they checked it in my class… Choices.
Another topic is online school, or as one person put it, “The year of cheating.” That may not be accurate, and I was not going to talk about this at all until multiple students and parents encouraged me to, even some who were involved in it. They wanted to know my take on it. Here goes.
Suddenly having a lot more independence made students face choices about their own accountability and academic habits. In all fairness, that’s not easy, and I struggled with that my first year and half of college, so I’m sympathetic to high school students in a situation like that they didn’t sign up for.
But the temptation to cheat made students choose what kind of students they were: Do they take the shortcut or give it their best effort? Do they blame the teacher or the situation, or take personal responsibility? Do they lie or own up to the truth?
These choices are seemingly simple when removed from the emotion and the stress of the situation, but in the moment they aren’t easy ones to make. I believed last year, and still do, that we all need grace when we mess up. All of us are still learning, not just those who are still in school. And choose to keep learning – learning in general, but also about yourself and trying to make yourself a better person in the long run.
I include myself in this too. Especially during busy weeks like the one we’re still in, I need this advice just as much as anyone else. I’m trying to learn from previous choices in order to do better, and it’s a constant process.
Graduates, you don’t have to answer this out loud, but if you had to do it over again, would you do a better job of online school? If so, you learned an important lesson that you should take with you, and that’s what school is all about – all kinds of learning, about academic subjects but also about life and about yourself – the person you are becoming based on your past, present and future choices.
In my opinion, the worst thing about any cheating in my class was that some seniors didn’t take any classes with me this year, perhaps because they felt guilty or thought I was mad at them. I was looking forward to having a bunch of them in my elective classes this year, and I was surprised and disappointed when they weren’t there in August.
We face so many choices, maybe even 2,000 an hour, if you believe everything you see on the Internet, like I do, so we should pause to think about them fairly often.
The things you spend your time and money on are your priorities, by definition. Choose wisely.
Are you typically on time or constantly running late?
Are people glad to see you coming or glad to see you leave?
These kinds of things are based on the choices we make and the habits and routines they form. Author John C. Maxwell put it this way: “Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you.” I think that’s some good advice to end on, and I hope you choose to consider it as you go on with your lives from here.
Class of 2022, thank you for choosing me to be your graduation speaker, and congratulations on making it to this pivotal day in your lives.
Thank you.
You know what today is, right? I think we all do.
As a sign of unity, let’s all say it together on the count of three. 1…2…3… Obi-Wan Kenobi. Disney+ released the first episodes of the show Obi-Wan Kenobi today. We finally made it to today…
First, let’s get some of the best advice I have out of the way right at the get go while everyone is still listening. If and when you get married, instead of renting tuxedos, buy suits. For real. I’ve been in quite a few weddings already (only one of my own… other people’s too…) but I could own that many nice suits for about the same price that I rented a tux for a day at a time. It’s something to consider.
Ladies, if you’re wondering about wedding-dress advice, you should know better than that. I’m sorry, I got nothin’.
The nicest person I’ve ever known was my Grandma Bulgrien. Her name was Iris. She was an amazing grandmother, and she had a permanent smile on her face. That doesn’t happen overnight.
The meanest person I’ve ever known was also quite old. I won’t tell you the person’s name, but he didn’t become that way overnight either. It makes me wonder about the choices they made to become what they were.
Maybe it was a coincidence that these two extremes were old compared to me. I do know some young people who are very nice, and some who are pretty mean already. I hope the latter can even things out a bit here soon…
If you take one thing from my speech tonight, it should be the suits instead of tuxes. Seriously, consider it.
But if you take just one more thing, I think it should be the word “choices.”
At least in our branch of the multiverse, we have countless choices throughout our lives. In fact, I looked it up, and some anonymous strangers on the Internet that I’m willing to trust without spending even a few seconds to vet them claim that the average adult makes around 35,000 decisions per day.
Who is the poor sucker who had to count all of those? Maniac…
Anyways, if we subtract about seven hours per day for sleep, that would mean we make around 2,000 decisions per hour, or one decision every two seconds or so.
A decision every two seconds just sounds redonkulous unless these are the most minor types of decisions. At that rate, most of them would have to be inconsequential choices. (Quick side note: Google’s spell checker didn’t flag the word redonkulous. We’re making progress…)
I think we don’t realize how many decisions we make each day because for most of them we fall back on our established routine. But over time our choices add up to make a significant portion of what we become, and it’s interesting to think about ourselves as the result of all the decisions we’ve made up to this point.
“But Mr. Bulgrien, a lot of things happen to us, and we have little to no control over them. You yourself say that when you teach plays and books like Oedipus Rex, The Grapes of Wrath, and 1984.”
That’s true, imaginary person that I created to argue with, and thank you for paying attention. I’m just talking about the things we can control, because it’s often possible to pause for a moment to think about it, especially since our choices add up and can become the habits and routines that dominate our lives, for good or for bad.
I’ll tell you the first time I heard someone say “choices” like this. Years ago, I started asking students at the beginning of class if there’s anything on their minds before we get going. One time this girl decides she wants to tell us about a date she went on. I thought, “Uh oh, here we go…” but she said the guy pulled up in his car and just honked the horn. Didn’t come to the door. Didn’t come meet her parents. Didn’t even get out of the car. Her mom said one word to her, “choices,” and let her decide what to do.
She went out and got in the car… and had the worst time of her life with this rude and inconsiderate boy. She said she should have known better. She knew right away she deserved more respect from this dude, and she learned about herself and about her own standards.
Even in the seemingly little things, it’s worth it to pause once in a while to remind ourselves that we have choices all the time, and one example is how we spend all of our time. Watching sports all day? Playing video games all night? Non-stop scrolling through social media?
One thing I like to do a couple times a year is have students check their average screen time. It’s often a surprise to them, which indicates they haven’t stopped to think about it. I believe a few people on stage behind me right now averaged well over 8 hours of screen time per day when they checked it in my class… Choices.
Another topic is online school, or as one person put it, “The year of cheating.” That may not be accurate, and I was not going to talk about this at all until multiple students and parents encouraged me to, even some who were involved in it. They wanted to know my take on it. Here goes.
Suddenly having a lot more independence made students face choices about their own accountability and academic habits. In all fairness, that’s not easy, and I struggled with that my first year and half of college, so I’m sympathetic to high school students in a situation like that they didn’t sign up for.
But the temptation to cheat made students choose what kind of students they were: Do they take the shortcut or give it their best effort? Do they blame the teacher or the situation, or take personal responsibility? Do they lie or own up to the truth?
These choices are seemingly simple when removed from the emotion and the stress of the situation, but in the moment they aren’t easy ones to make. I believed last year, and still do, that we all need grace when we mess up. All of us are still learning, not just those who are still in school. And choose to keep learning – learning in general, but also about yourself and trying to make yourself a better person in the long run.
I include myself in this too. Especially during busy weeks like the one we’re still in, I need this advice just as much as anyone else. I’m trying to learn from previous choices in order to do better, and it’s a constant process.
Graduates, you don’t have to answer this out loud, but if you had to do it over again, would you do a better job of online school? If so, you learned an important lesson that you should take with you, and that’s what school is all about – all kinds of learning, about academic subjects but also about life and about yourself – the person you are becoming based on your past, present and future choices.
In my opinion, the worst thing about any cheating in my class was that some seniors didn’t take any classes with me this year, perhaps because they felt guilty or thought I was mad at them. I was looking forward to having a bunch of them in my elective classes this year, and I was surprised and disappointed when they weren’t there in August.
We face so many choices, maybe even 2,000 an hour, if you believe everything you see on the Internet, like I do, so we should pause to think about them fairly often.
The things you spend your time and money on are your priorities, by definition. Choose wisely.
Are you typically on time or constantly running late?
Are people glad to see you coming or glad to see you leave?
These kinds of things are based on the choices we make and the habits and routines they form. Author John C. Maxwell put it this way: “Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you.” I think that’s some good advice to end on, and I hope you choose to consider it as you go on with your lives from here.
Class of 2022, thank you for choosing me to be your graduation speaker, and congratulations on making it to this pivotal day in your lives.
Thank you.