0:07

To the class of and the

0:09

family, friends, teachers, and neighbors who

0:11

helped them along the way. Congratulations,

0:14

you did it. Graduation

0:20

might look a little different this year, and

0:22

it'll almost certainly feel different, but

0:24

whether you're celebrating with a small crew in person

0:27

or gearing up for another virtual event, this

0:29

is your moment, which is why we're

0:32

bringing you the commencement. You deserve full

0:34

of wisdom to help you step into the real world

0:37

and enter a brand new normal. And

0:40

now please welcome Mini

0:42

Driver. This

0:54

is Mini Driver. I firstly want

0:56

to congratulate you for having graduated

0:58

under what have been x extremely challenging

1:01

circumstances. We

1:03

don't have any recent precedent for a pandemic

1:05

having forced us to stay at home for fifteen months,

1:08

but there are parallel moments of hardship and

1:10

weirdness, both culturally and socially,

1:12

which meant people had to carry on no matter what.

1:15

My own dad flew in World War Two.

1:18

He was just eighteen when his plane was shot down

1:20

over the North Sea in December. Average

1:23

water temperature was three degrees c undergrade

1:26

thirty seven point four degrees fahrenheit.

1:29

He saved four men from drowning survived

1:31

the war, but suffered PTSD in different

1:33

ways his whole life. For the

1:35

woman he married in not

1:37

my mother. Her life had been changed utterly,

1:40

having assumed she would finish school and marry,

1:42

only to find herself leaving school to work

1:45

through the war, and then at the end of it there

1:47

being hardly any young men left to build a life

1:49

with. She and my father decided to get

1:51

married because it was practical. Love

1:54

grew out of that practicality. It

1:56

was not what either of them had envisioned. And

1:58

perhaps that's really what I want to say to you.

2:01

You have learned this past year and a half, happily

2:03

or not, that circumstance in

2:05

life can change in an instant, and

2:08

that your happiness, success and growth

2:11

can only ever come from how you decide

2:13

to belly up to it. It's a blessing

2:15

and a curse, but I genuinely think

2:17

it's more of a blessing to be able

2:19

to move in a nimble way through life, to

2:22

know from the very beginning that you were in charge

2:24

of how you metabolize and then synthesize

2:27

circumstance. Selling forth

2:29

into the world in its current circumstance will

2:31

require a lot of creative thought.

2:34

But I have to tell you from my fifty

2:36

one year oldvantage point, being adept

2:38

at creative thinking is probably the most

2:40

powerful tool I've cultivated since I

2:43

myself graduated. The

2:45

idea that any of the business of

2:47

living is easy is a fallacy

2:49

perpetuated by any number of external

2:51

forces, most of them wanting you to subscribe

2:54

or buy something. I wish someone

2:57

had told me when I was younger that

2:59

their sincere really is no there

3:01

there, and to let go of the idea,

3:04

the fixed idea of there being some

3:07

arrival point in life. This is

3:09

not the same thing as abandoning the notion of

3:11

having goals, but rather embracing

3:13

the idea that we can be fluid and strong

3:16

enough to create what we want within the

3:18

vicissitudes of life. In many

3:20

ways, you have all been prepped

3:22

and trained to be ready to make drastic

3:24

changes at very short notice. You

3:27

have all just got on with the rare circumstance

3:30

of having had to stay home and learn in your

3:32

senior year of college. I wonder if

3:34

you'll all go forth into the rest of your lives

3:36

with the greatest sense of not taking anything

3:38

for granted. Another lesson.

3:40

I know it's taken me years to learn, and

3:43

as with most of the truly useful tricks to

3:45

living contentedly, successfully

3:47

and with meaning, the prescription is

3:49

mostly counterintuitive, or it's

3:51

always sounded that way to me. Imagine

3:53

what it is you want, then rigorously

3:55

take your mind off it, and concentrate on mining

3:58

each present moment for what is good,

4:00

interesting, useful, and practical. Be

4:03

ready to change course at a moment's notice,

4:05

trusting that there are infinite numbers

4:08

of pathways to what you want, not

4:10

just the one you have become attached to. I'll

4:13

leave you with a quick insight from my mom,

4:16

who died a month ago at eight four

4:18

years old, having lived a glorious,

4:20

passionate, and wayward life, and

4:23

his wisdom is largely the contents of what

4:25

I've been saying to you. I called her up about

4:27

a year ago, just before the pandemic hit,

4:30

and I was complaining about how hard everything

4:32

felt, how frustrating it was

4:35

that, at fifty one, with what is generally

4:37

perceived as a successful career behind

4:39

me, and with huge anticipation for

4:41

all the things I still wanted to do, getting

4:44

work and achieving goals was

4:47

an uphill experience. I told

4:49

her it felt embarrassing and inappropriate that

4:51

I still had to hustle so hard for work

4:53

and opportunities, that it was a grind

4:56

that nothing came easily. She was

4:58

silent listening to me ver, and then she

5:00

said, well, I

5:03

love the hustle. I love

5:05

the grind. The grind is

5:08

what gets me out of bed in the morning. And

5:10

whoever promised you that it would be easy, why

5:12

is that your assumption? Ease is

5:15

not the end game, men, Playing

5:17

is the point. So my hope

5:19

for you is that you will venture out

5:22

into the world, whatever the current topography

5:24

looks like, and let yourself and your creativity

5:27

be the arbiter of your experience. Let's

5:29

circumstances be immaterial to your growth.

5:32

You are living proof that this

5:34

is entirely possible. I

5:37

wish you every good fortune.

5:51

You can find the collection of incredible commencement

5:53

addresses from all your favorite speakers at

5:55

the Commencement Podcast on iHeart Radio

5:58

or wherever you listen to podcast from the

6:01

Off to the Ad

6:04

Candi