This has been making the rounds on Facebook, but when I saw the speaker was David McCullough (and I hope it’s the historian), I couldn’t resist putting some of his remarks here. We need extraordinary people in our world, but it doesn’t come just because someone told us it was so. The full speech is HERE.
Resist the easy comforts of complacency, the specious glitter of materialism, the narcotic paralysis of self-satisfaction. Be worthy of your advantages. And read… read all the time… read as a matter of principle, as a matter of self-respect. Read as a nourishing staple of life. Develop and protect a moral sensibility and demonstrate the character to apply it. Dream big. Work hard. Think for yourself. Love everything you love, everyone you love, with all your might. And do so, please, with a sense of urgency, for every tick of the clock subtracts from fewer and fewer; and as surely as there are commencements there are cessations, and you’ll be in no condition to enjoy the ceremony attendant to that eventuality no matter how delightful the afternoon.
Apprentice 2 Jesus 