Honors Speech

This will be my fourth time having the honor of delivering the faculty response at our seniors honors banquet on Thursday evening.

If not for this blog - where I posted the text versions of the speeches - I wouldn't be able to recall what I spoke about.

My first year was a call for the seniors to step it up and work harder. I tied it in to the idea of 'flow' and how working toward an personally relevant goal leads one to flow and that leads one to happiness. Thus - shocking as it my sound - work (at least the personally fulfilling kind) equals happiness.

My second year I chose to examine the idea of nostalgia - or more importantly the myth of nostalgia. Don't let the older generations get you down when they look down on you and think of you as inferior, for their ancestors did the same thing. That's a crummy part of human nature. I stressed that we tend to idealize the past. Don't dwell on it. Move forward and keep this in mind when the younger generation comes to power - remember, you were just like them in many ways once.

My third year I discussed how the seniors might try and find their way in the flat world.

This year I plan to draw on an interesting new term I heard from Richard Brodhead (the president of Duke) from a podcast I listened to some time ago: futureproof. Then I want to discuss Sir Ken Robinson's ideas of passion and being in one's element. Finally, I want to use the life and times of Fred Jones to illustrate the importance of the human imagination and loving what you do.

I hope I can make it all come together. And keep the speech to a respectable length.