Continue to Commence

Follow your dreams, heart, and passions, but don’t do it for the money!

Never give up and don’t fear failure!

Your future is bright!

There were good times, hard times, and other times, but now is the first day of the rest of your lives!

Nothing says graduation quite like these sentiments bestowed on graduates at ceremonies across the country at this time of year.

While they are cliché, perhaps, all of us could do with a little more of these sentimental thoughts.

So, my fellow nine-to-fivers, exhausted parents, and full-fledged adults, this is my commencement speech to you:

For years we’ve learned lessons the hard way, the easy way, and sometimes the entertaining way.

We’ve made it through difficult, beautiful, and sometimes boring parts of life.

Remember the first time you realized you could eat whatever you wanted, including ice cream for breakfast?

How about that time you got so sick you had to call your mom for advice on which medicine to take?

Oh! What about the time you sent an email on a Tuesday afternoon confirming a meeting for the following day?

Crazy times, am I right?

We made it through, though, and here we are on your average everyday Wednesday reading the newspaper like the adults we worked so hard to become.

Congrats!

Now, if there was any advice I wish I could give to my fellow chugging-through-life adults, it’s this:

It is not too late to follow your dreams, but it is OK to do it a little bit for the money.

Following your dreams might look a little different, now, but we can still do it.

Perhaps, today, following your dreams will look like slowing down and having a picnic in the grass.

Maybe, your passion lies in an empty canvas waiting for you to apply paint after the children go to bed.

Possibly, following your heart is reexamining why you do what you do, and rekindling a love for your family or career.

In big ways and little ways, I implore you to wake up from the mundane and follow the twinkle in your eye you’ve put off for far too long.

When you take that leap, you might fail.

But, as we can recall from our own high school graduations, that failure is not the end, and we shouldn’t give up.

Remember how little kids walk around with scraped knees and bruised foreheads?

They carry those band-aided battle wounds because they take chances.

They’ve got no idea what they’re doing, but I tell you what, little Jimmy is going to run headlong into the living room coffee table on repeat, until he finds the skills and joy of running freely through all terrains.

Expect the bumps and bruises, embrace them, and propel yourself toward the discovery of what’s next in life.

All those ups and downs and turn around are bound to propel us forward to our bright futures, because, you see, the future hasn’t dimmed, we’ve simply put on sunglasses.

Just as graduation day was the first day of the rest of our lives, so is today, tomorrow, and the next day.

Everyday we wake up, the rest of our lives lie ahead of us.

So why not get out there and put grass stains on our pants, stay out too late with your friends, and dream big for your future self?

Today, I charge you with the challenge to commence.

(What is a graduation speech without a definition anyway?)

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines commence as a verb meaning “to have or make a beginning.”

So, let’s make a beginning.

We’re not just in the middle.

We’re not nearing the end.

We’re simply gearing up for the next page of this adventure.

It is time to once again, go out, do great things, and commence.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com

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