111 Graduations--Advice doesn't change much

My oldest great-nephew is graduating from high school on May 29. I think I knew my great-aunts much better than he knows me, but I did see him last summer and have always followed his accomplishments. So I wrote him a letter and included the speech I gave at my own graduation (I know he'll read every word). Advice to graduates doesn't change much over the years, nor do farewells. I'd like to say I wrote every word from the heart, but I do recall working with the senior English teacher on this and she had a large file of previous graduation speeches going back many years, unattributed. I'm sure I liberally reused what was in the file, although I truly don't remember.

“Parents, Teachers, Fellow-students, and Friends,

On behalf of the class of 1957, I feel it an honor to have the privilege of welcoming you to this important event--our graduation from high school. We are grateful to you who have helped us build and shape our lives; we are fully conscious of what has been done for us--the tools we have been given. Now we have reached a goal. We have waited for this night, not as a means of escape, but as an official entrance into the adult world.

As we pause tonight to consider our future, we are awed by the innumerable possibilities. Every year the horizon widens and millions of young people step up to the doors of opportunity, leaving behind those blind malcontents who can see no opportunity and claim to have no “luck.” This our Golden Age, the age which is the freest and the richest. Now is the time we must grow to meet the demands. The new world awaits new men and new women who can think clearly and carry on to still further heights our complex civilization.

We cannot sit back and say, “Look what a fine world in which I live.” We must meet the challenge of the new frontiers. The frontiers today are not physical, but mental. It is not necessary to pioneer in the wilderness. However, we must pioneer in new methods of education to meet crowded conditions. Waterloos have been won on bloody battlefields, but “we must win greater battles in the field of peace.” There may never be another Lincoln, but we must train true-hearted servants to drive tyrants from political offices. True, another Stalin may not terrorize the masses of Asia and rule with an iron hand, but we in the United States must educate ourselves to the dangers of the Iron Hand of plenty in a world of poverty. In our Golden Age we need Whitmans, Sandburgs and Benets to carry on the light of good literature. We even need more people like Grandma Moses to continue bringing warmth to the hearts of America.

These are our frontiers, possibilities and opportunities. In order to conquer our untamed world which laughs at our feeble but persistent efforts, we must educate ourselves. By education, I mean the patient acquiring of wisdom. Not all of us will be able to go on with a formal education, but the education can be had in the office, garage, home or factory. Wherever we are, we must be on a continuous voyage of discovery, searching for answers. Physical adventure promises only half the thrill of mental adventure. It is a shame that so many mental lives slow down after school days are over just because people forget the necessity of everlasting study if they expect to accomplish anything.

We must learn to think creatively. The Edisons and Marconis were the long range thinkers of yesterday. Where are the long range thinkers of tomorrow? Maybe a few are sitting behind me, smiling at the thought. Charles F. Kettering, former Vice President of General Motors, has such a creative mind. When he discovered it took 31 days to paint an automobile, he called the paint men together. After discussion and planning they decided maybe one or two days at the most could be saved. But Kettering said he wanted it done in one hour. Impossible, everyone said. Today we know it wasn’t impossible, because he developed Duco which dries so fast an auto can be completely painted in one hour.

We have one life to live. What will we do with it? We, the Youth, with our ambition, health, love of beauty, seriousness and laughter, fresh education, sense of duty, love of freedom, friends--have everything--everything that is except EXPERIENCE. We are eager to learn and will strive to do our best.

Our adventurous pioneer spirit will meet obstacles, but if we map out our lives with a purpose and a sense of direction, we can climb over these obstacles with hardly any loss of time. The masses of people are content to rise to the plateau of conformability. They are the 95%. About 4% clench their teeth and struggle to lead the 95%. Only 1% of the people reach a high leadership level. The 1 and 4 percent can meet the obstacles, conquer them and even change them to opportunities. Sometimes we on this threshold of life will want to give up. I hope we are made of the 4% and 1% stuff. We must never give up until we have released our unused abilities and given our talents to the benefit of mankind.”