75. Commencement – Lincoln Debenham
I’d like to give some words of encouragement to my fellow graduates: I know this looks like it may never end—but it will. An end will come and all will be right.
Dear class of 2020,
I’d like to start by offering my congratulations. We made it! I’m beyond proud to be graduating alongside the most intelligent, hopeful, and capable people this world has to offer. It’s been a difficult end to our year. We didn’t get to dance with our prom dates. We didn’t get to walk that stage, which we looked forward to for the longest time. We couldn’t say our final goodbyes to each other in person—and that hurts. However, we must not forget that we’re being passed the torch to shape our world; to fix what’s broken, like a racist system, like voting laws that prevent so many from using their voice. If anybody can do that, it’s the class of 2020.
I’d like to give some words of encouragement to my fellow graduates: I know this looks like it may never end—but it will. An end will come and all will be right. But for that to happen, it’ll take work. We all have to do our part to ensure that we can safely gather again, so we can make the changes we were all born to make. If I’m reminded of anything right now, it’s that much of the time, what’s right isn’t always convenient—but what’s right is always worth it in the end.
At the moment, that means doing what’s safest for everybody, even if we have to sacrifice some things we enjoy. Yet with this challenge may come a silver lining: I think that it’s very likely we’ll carry this lesson through life and view things in new ways because of it.
I’ll close by thanking the class of 2020 for teaching me valuable lessons—from lending a helping hand, to always looking to improve myself and the things around me, and finally to embracing all with respect and dignity. In these last few weeks, the issue of racial injustice has emerged to the forefront again. As I prepare for college, I’ll be doing what I can to fight the virus of injustice which has plagued our nation since European arrival. I’ll be standing not just with young people, but with everyone who wishes to make the world a safer, more equal, more beautiful place.
– Lincoln Debenham
Prompt:
Write your own commencement speech for whoever needs it—whether it’s your own graduate, family, or community. Your change making could start here, with your own words.
Emily-Rose Klema
Location: Raleigh, North Carolina
About: These prompts freed up space inside of me; gave me permission to make peace, unravel old patterns, outlive the past, and deserve the new. I have been changed by this 100-day process I committed to. Now I am ready for what lies ahead.
Age: 30
Dear lamp-lighters, gate-keepers, door-openers, torch-bearers, way-makers, and way-finders;
This is the time of your rising. You are the new generation. You’re here at the right time.
Think for yourself. Question authority. Find elders worth honoring. Listen to their stories. Seek wisdom. Follow the path of experience. Learn from your mistakes and share your own stories.
Do not seek to make yourself world-known. Your life will speak for itself. Learn the art of relationship. Speak to people. Make it personal. Wonder about the world around you. If you're not satisfied with an answer, go and search for it where you haven't gone before.
When a crowd gathers, step back. Don't react. Know what you're joining before you commit. Summarize, question, investigate. No need to hurry.
There will be times when you are on the path of least resistance and then the path of the most resistance. They both have things to teach you.
Honor all lives. Especially those of the unborn. They are the next generation, knocking at the door. Defend, protect, provide, inspire, learn, love, forgive, and forgive again and again and again. Forgiveness will be a superpower for you.
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Learn skills both practical and revolutionary.
Speak and listen with equal attention to detail and the heart of the matter. Write your story day by day, learn every lesson you can, be bold, and say "I love," and, "I forgive." And just see where that takes you.
Onward!
Lorelle Mariel Murzello
Location: Mumbai, India
About: My name is Lorelle and I am a Teacher-educator, researcher and writer from Mumbai, India. The Isolation Journals has been that window to my soul and helped me understand this (crazy!) world and my place in it!
Age: 25
Kacey Musgraves told me to “Follow my Arrow”---
It was 5 years since I completed my B.A. yesterday and I really cannot believe it. I went on to do my post-grad right after and it has 3 years of being out in a world that feels very different from what being a student felt like.
Here’s my commencement speech to anyone struggling with the student-to-employee/unemployed transition.
Dear people chained by exploitative capitalist systems,
Here’s a little reminder for you-YOU ARE AMAZING, YOU ARE ENOUGH, YOU WILL BE OKAY.
It’s been 5 years since I graduated from the college of my dreams with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology & Anthropology. Here are examples of the unsolicited advice I got while selecting my major: 1) Why are you not selecting one major? People with double majors present a “confused appearance” to the employer. 2) What can you really do with this degree?
I’m going to tackle both these questions in this speech today.
The world of the arts is full of examples of people who’ve advocated for divergent perspectives…the more we are able to see phenomena from different angles and points of view, the better we’re able to understand them and form a well-informed perspective. As humans, we are complex beings and even when we have one driving interest that we want to pursue…there are so many other things that define us. In his extremely famous speech, Steve Jobs used the words “connecting the dots”…what makes us especially unique is how much of our experience, reading, heart and soul we bring to the table—And that alone makes us multi-dimensional. We will always be confused and that candle of confusion is what will help us reform and grow.
A lot of conventionally-thinking Indian parents do not think much of liberal arts degrees—you’ve not really made it at 22/23 if you don’t have one of the following things 1) An engineering degree 2) An MBBS 3) A spot in a B-school 4) A one way ticket to the West….And while things are changing, this largely still holds….What does any other degree mean, then? In the most clichéd sense, it can mean anything…One possibility is that you can leave the degree aside and forget that you did it at all…
I left college with hopes in my eyes and just the widest smile on my face; partly because I was going back to college…I was just so happy to see something I had worked towards come to fruition. It was in college that I had learnt that the only way to do something was to love it with all your heart and that was the most beautiful thing.
I started working 3 years ago and pretty much most of my beliefs and hopes were challenged by the world around. I saw workplaces being exploitative, I saw organizations that cared very little about employee well-being; I saw myself questioning whether I should love my workplace or be so attached to my work because it was really killing me. But, what has kept me sane is pretty much the clarity I have in the answers to the two unsolicited advice-questions.
I am so much more than my job and there’s so much more that I bring to the table that is above and beyond the organization’s goal and their ‘Job description’. You need to believe (no matter what anyone tells you)--- that you make your job description look good. SAY IT TO YOURSELF EVERYDAY.
My full-time job is that of an English language teacher trainer today and while it may have nothing to do with my degrees…it also has everything to do with them. My B.A. degree in Psychology and Anthropology and my M.A. in Mental health has everything to do with the perspective I have today- From my ethics, to my worldview, to my desire to try my hand at taking freelance pop press writing jobs and to generally being the dominant discourse smasher that I am. The answer to the question “What can you do with this degree?” assumes that your career is going to be your entire life…and this was a hard learning---IT IS NOT; there’s so much that life has thrown at you that your workplace/career cannot even fathom…YOU ARE YOUR ENTIRE LIFE.
So, if you’re exhausted by the pressure, I hear you. If you don’t understand where you’re going, it’s completely okay…take a deep breath and remind yourself who you are and what brought you here and that you’re living in an unjust capitalistic, exploitative world that thrives off making you feel less-worthy.
In the words of Kacey Musgraves (from her beautiful song RAINBOW)- “You hold tight to your umbrella
darling,I'm just tryin' to tell ya…that there's always been a rainbow hangin' over your head”
YOU ARE AMAZING. YOU ARE ENOUGH. YOU WILL BE OKAY.
Love,
Lorelle
Rachel Gallagher
Location: Valencia, Spain
About: I wrote this as a young woman half a world away from the U.S. I hope someday it is a home that I can be proud of. I wrote this after watching George Floyd's murder, during the protests, that I wish I could've been a part of, at home.
Age: 24
My friends, who walk along the same beaten path, brown and dusty and full of old footprints... we have arrived. We have arrived at a world pandemic. The streets are full of illness, of anger, of racial injustice, and brutality. We have walked down this path a long time. Not often willing to keep an eye out for a fork in the road, we are afraid of options and of change.
But today, teetering on the edge of what could be the most dangerous, destructive summer of our lives, we have a choice. Whether or not many of our fellow earthlings are able to see it, here it is there, the fork in the road. The choice between two ways of life. If we travel down the barren, dirt road of generations past, we will find ourselves once again in misunderstanding, ignorance, and violence. It may look familiar, but do not be fooled by familiarity. We would find no comfort in what is to come. We know what the world is like when the cops win, when the racists reign supreme, when we fear the science behind a vaccination but not the man behind the curtain spreading lies.
For a long time we have lived in ignorance, hatred, and falsehoods. We now know what fake news looks like, what it sounds like, and who spreads it. If we continue down this path, falsities will coat the walls of our house like paint, the truth becomes a lie and a lie becomes the truth. We cannot continue as we are, like we have been for centuries. Today, we must choose the new road, we must venture down the new path. Fear not what you do not know, for it is what you do know that scares you. It is the racism, the climate crisis, the sickness of the communal mind, body, and soul. These are all old familiar friends on the path we’ve been walking down for some time, pushing us in the same direction, a harsh and unrelenting wind at our backs.
It is time to forfeit that which we know for that which we do not know. We do not know a world without racism, without fake news and hateful old men in mansions. We do not know a world of climate security, financial equity, of forgiveness and support. At this fork in the road, we must be courageous enough to turn to the unknown. Full steam ahead, walk down the unfamiliar path, and revel in all that is possible in a future that is new. Congratulations to the survivors of 2020, never forget that it is our world to make what we please.