On Thursday evening I will be giving the closing address at this year's honor banquet. I was asked a week or two ago and now the moment is almost at hand.
That's what is scary about this time of the year, things begin to speed up so rapidly. In the fall, we have all the time in the world. But in the spring time is compressed. I know we still have four weeks of school left, but the entire month of May seems to last about as long as one week in September.
I was thinking about the address on my way home yesterday afternoon. And I almost have it all done. Well, in my head any way.
I'm starting with the idea of what would I have wanted someone to talk about fifteen years ago when I was a senior on the cusp of leaving school behind. So I've decided to talk about - to borrow a phrase from "Dead Poet's Society" - making their lives extraordinary. I have grown quite close to these kids. The closest since the class of '00. And now I can look around and see a lot of those '00 graduates who haven't made their lives extraordinary. Many are still living like they are 16. Sad. Given that this class is expected NOT to earn what their parents do, then they have to find some other way to define the American Dream - or to make their lives extra ordinary. I hope they do it by being good fathers and mothers, hard workers, valuable citizens, strong volunteers, kind neighbors, loyal friends.
I might try and work in a little of Csikszentmihalyi's psychology of flow. Just don't ask me to try and pronounce his last name.
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