This is the season for graduations. Both college and high school. Although I have never been asked to deliver a commencement address, I think it would be kinda cool. Giving advice to those young, eager skulls full of mush. “Take my advice, I'm not using it,” would be the first thing I would say.
Actually, I think I have learned a thing or two along the way of living life. Some of those things would have been nice to hear when I was younger. I doubt I would have heeded the advice at the time, but it would have been nice to hear. Most of the “lessons learned” were not the kind of things someone could have told me about. I had to learn the hard way. But then isn't that the way of most young people? Perhaps that is how it should be. Life will teach these youngsters far better than any 20-minute speech given in a cap and gown ever could.
That being said, I would tell these young people to not allow themselves to mistake “what they do” for “who they are.” When I worked at the hospital in Valdosta for many years, my job was a relatively simple one. I often told people that you could train a monkey to do my job. Come to think of it, you could possibly say the same about my current job. I have heard it said that if you give a monkey a typewriter and enough time, he will eventually re-create the complete works of William Shakespeare. That's probably true, but we have deadlines in the newspaper business. But, back to my job at the hospital. A doctor once said to me, “Rick, you could be doing so much more. But you seem content right where you are. You're like a Golden Retriever, always smiling and taking things as they come.” I took the Golden Retriever part as a complement and told him I had learned to distinguish between “what I do” and “who I am.” He looked at me as if I had given him some grand revelation. I don't think he had ever considered that notion. He was one of these people who was very driven, professionally, and as such, he thought of himself in terms of his job. The world needs folks like that, I suppose. I just know I'm not one of them. I do love “what I do,” and it probably comes as close to matching “who I am” as anything I have ever done. But I am still so much more than just a byline on a news story.
So that would be my advice. That, and “don't spend all your money.” But do you think the kids would really heed that advice? I didn't think so. Neither did I.