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graduation

Graduation Day – 1978

June 9, 2013 By Michele Woodward 2 Comments

Speech

 

 

I stood at the fifty yard line of the football field, looking up into the packed stadium before me. It was June 10, 1978 and I was eighteen years old. I took a deep breath, adjusted my mortar board, and delivered this speech:

Mr. Woodson, Mr. Phipps, Faculty, Students, Moms, Dads and Siblings. Welcome to the graduation exercises for the class of 1978, the most confused class in the history of the world. I’m sure that every class considers themselves the most chaotic. But I have evidence for my class. It all started back in first grade.

Lyndon Baines Johnson was President. Most of us were six. Life was easy then; fat crayola crayons that were flat on one side so they wouldn’t roll and “See Spot Run.” Second grade wasn’t all that bad either. We got harder books and multiplication tables.

It really wasn’t until fourth grade that the trouble started for the class of 1978. It was 1969. We heard all about hippies – we even had older brothers and sisters who were into psychedelic posters, tie-dye jeans and San Francisco. Peace, love and the fourth grade. We were nine. We started, then, independent study. We were supposed to work at our own rate and set goals for ourselves. Do our own thing, as it were. At nine  years old – how many nine year olds do you know who can work a their own rate? We made a lot of paper airplanes but didn’t learn a whole lot – except how to waste time, and procrastinate effectively. This carried over to the fifth and sixth grades. Then there were phonics and accelerated learning. We had special classes for the smart kids and special classes for the not-so-smart kids, but the kids in the middle got lost, forgotten and bored.

It was a time of change. Minorities and women were beginning to gather strength. Eleven year old girls were suddenly being told “You can be anything you want.” Richard Nixon was President. And we discovered ourselves in seventh grade. Still doing independent study and still getting away with murder.

Eighth grade – the first year that boys could take Home Ec and girls could take shop. Nixon went to China and we started worrying about High School. High School, and inevitably, the Real World. The people were so big; they must have been at least 17, those Seniors.

1974. Nixon left office. Everyone wanted to be a Woodward or a Bernstein. Kids played Watergate – not war. We had a President who fell down a lot and a teenager in the White House. Sophomore year. Do you believe that it wasn’t until my Sophomore year that I learned the difference between a a noun and a verb? Everyone assumed I knew, but it was lost somewhere between independent study and accelerated learning. For us, college loomed ominously in the near future. Junior year. PSAT’s, SAT’s, ACT’s, achievements, grade point average, class rand, and total encompassing terror.

Senior year. 1978. Finally. College applications, college acceptances and rejections. Now the attitude among educators is “Let’s get back to the basics.” All I can say is “It’s about time!” They tell us “Johnny can’t read,” Susie can’t add” and “that poor girl Janie, she just can’t write.” We’re a video generation. As Lily Tomlin says, “Is your mind like teflon – nothing sticks to it?”

And here in Fairfax County we have huge numbers of National Merit Semi-Finalists. 85% of us here plan to go to college. Thing about that for a moment Moms and Dads. Think about your graduation. How many of you were the first to graduate in  your family? How many of your classmates went to college? Grandmas, Grandpas – how many of you graduations from High School? But you fared well enough. Now we’re told that when we get out of college, the diploma we’ll get will be equivalent to our parent’s high school diploma. And we won’t be able to find a job anyway, anywhere.

And there is a phenomenon in the U.S. today. Kids are not leaving home. Why? Why should they, when they have color TV’s, stereos, cars and 476 stereo LPs? When my parents left home, they wanted to better themselves – they were driven. But us.

How can we possibly better the level of luxury we now possess? Why should we go out in a world where it will be hard for us the first five or ten or fifteen years if it is so much easier to stay home?

They say, whoever, “they” are, that we are growing up sooner, that the youth of today is more sophisticated than that of the past. Perhaps. They say that our future is grim and that we may destroy ourselves. Gee, I just love cheerful forecasts.

From were we stand now, things may seem grim and uncertain. But in the year 2000 most of this class will be forty. Maybe with homes, perhaps with children. Who knows, we may even like our jobs.

We may even be as confused then as we are now. But nevertheless, the Class of 1978 will succeed. Like confused classes before us, we’ll do what we have to; we may make a few mistakes, but we’ll get the job done.

Today, I read this speech and wince a little – okay, it was so much better in the delivery, I swear – but I am very proud of the eighteen year old me who stood in front of thousands of people and said these words. I recognize my now-self in the cadence and the construction of this piece. And the future I’m living is uncannily reflected there.

Most of all, I feel… what is it “they” say? Ah, it’s “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Yes, that’s very true.

 

Filed Under: Authenticity, Blog, Clarity, Happier Living, Uncategorized, WiseWork Tagged With: 1978, commencement, graduation, growing up, Nixon, speech, W.T. Woodson

Caps & Gowns

June 7, 2008 By Michele Woodward Leave a Comment


It’s the time of year. Caps and gowns on parade. Young men and women on the threshold of the rest of their lives. Awesome. Inspiring. Scary as hell.

I was recently asked to contribute to an article called something like, “Best Advice for Graduates That You Never Received.” Started me thinking. And since I am now writing an advice column, I’m all smug about my advice-giving abilities.

So here’s my six best pieces of advice to graduates:

1. Have integrity in all that you do. Integrity means that you operate from a place of honor. You say what you mean, and mean what you say. You’re reliable. You’re consistent. You can be counted on. Coming from a place of integrity creates a sterling reputation. And a sterling reputation delivers a sterling career, and a happy life.

2. Take the time to connect with others. Get to know the people you work with, the people who live next door, the people at the local homeless shelter. Because by connecting with others, you’ll deepen your connection with yourself. You’ll know yourself more intimately, and allow others to know you fully, too. And you’ll be richer for the experience.

3. Live a life full of risks. Maybe that means something as big as BASE jumping to you (please wear a helmet and pay your insurance premiums, dear) but small risks — like speaking up, or saying no — can be even more powerful (and don’t usually require helmets). Do something that feels like a risk to you every single day, and you will never feel stuck in a too small life.

4. Have passion — for your work, for your loves, for your life. When there’s at least one thing you are absolutely on fire about, the focused joy that results will draw fabulous people and experiences to you. Just a word of caution: don’t confuse passion with drama. If it feels even slightly icky or squidgy, it’s probably drama. Passion always brings something positive to the world, while drama generally dwells in the negative. Live with passion and you live in a positive place.

5. Define your own idea of success. I have known people who have gone to all the right schools and got the right jobs… and are miserable. Why? Because they were marching to the beat of somebody else’s drummer. Money is just a tool that allows you to do what you want to do. Status is a function of ego and ultimately means nothing. [See Integrity above] What means something is who you are and what you bring. Decide on that, and do it. Tap out your own beat.

6. Get out of your own way. Allow great things to happen for you. Because when you’re living with integrity, passion, connection and risks, you have created an environment where your best self can come out to play. When that happens, your life will unfold in amazing and inspiring ways. Let it. Be open and accepting and aware of the great stuff — and more will pour into your life.

Someone said to me this week, “Your twenties are all about figuring stuff out.” To which I said, “Honey, LIFE is about figuring stuff out.” Life’s not like a research project where you line up all your sources, exhaust all lines of inquiry and write up a whopping conclusion where everything is laid out all reasoned and deduced. No, in my experience, it’s precisely those times when you think you have it all figured out that — wham! — everything changes.

So my final piece of advice is this: be constantly curious, and continue to find and shape who you are and what you stand for. Take it all in, and savor it. Continue to grow. Live a full and dynamic, changing life.

Why? Because it’s a really, really fabulous way to live. That’s why.

Filed Under: Happier Living, Managing Change Tagged With: advice, caps, gowns, graduate, graduation, integrity, passion

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