George Saunders’s Advice to Graduates

[Midpack]

Supposedly this convocation speech to the 2013 Syracuse grads went viral last summer, but I missed it then. In thinking about regrets, more than what I have or haven't done (yet)...

What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.

It was only an 8 minute speech, so a quick read. It struck a chord with me, thought it might with others.

http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2...vice-to-graduates/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

 

[Richard4444]

I loved it, even if it is my alma mater. Thanks Midpack

Rich

 

[MuirWannabe]

Pretty decent advice. Hope they were listening more than I bothered at my college graduation.

 

[Free To Canoe]

His word ring true with me.
Kind of you to post it for us.

 

[ERD50]

First, I must admit I looked at this thread numerous times before clicking the link. I generally dislike most of these 'inspirational' speech things. I find most of them rather trite and tiresome and sugary-sweet. To each their own though.

But I did just click on it, and it started out very well IMO, a good blend of humor, connection and something to draw you in. And throughout, I thought the message was actually very good. Not earth-shattering, but I think it's good that we pause to think about these things from time to time. I think it might help me to move them from the background to the foreground a bit, at least for a while. That's enough to make the read worthwhile, I think.

His message kind of reminded me of a quote I read from the recently deceased writer, Maya Angelou. "People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel." I think there is a lot of truth to that.

Thanks for posting.


-ERD50

 

[clifp]

I am sucker for a good[-] commencement [/-]speech. That one was a gem, thanks for posting.