Meaning...I graduated from college four years ago. That is a bit insane to me...I have been out of college for as long as I was in college. And let me tell you, the two commencement speakers still had as much to say to me as they did to the 2011 graduates. My brother had two graduations...one for the entire university, and another for the fine arts department. The first speaker, Indra Nooyi, is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo, and has a bio of accomplishments that will simultaneously inspire you and make you feel like the laziest person in existence. The second speaker, Steven Reineke, is a Miami of Ohio graduate (my brother's recent alma mater) and the director of The New York Pops, as well as many other orchestras and musical ensembles. Both speakers offered incredible words of wisdom, both for the graduates and for all of us in attendance. However, these weren't words of how to succeed. At this point in my life, I'm not looking for that anyway. Indra, a beautiful Indian woman in her 50s, and Steven, a handsome gent in his early 40s, have both very recently reached a place in their lives where the hard work of many years has begun to pay off. Both stressed that a person's 20s are a time of exploration, a time to figure out what it means to be an adult. Being that I am still in my 20s, I found this quite comforting. I appreciated the honesty offered by Indra and Steven - they were optimistic about the future, yet realistic about the challenges faced by our generation. They were both persistent about finding ones' passion; however, they also repeatedly stated that this road is neither straight nor simple. Sometimes one must follow different paths than originally intended. One should always be open to straying from the path from time to time. And one should not be disheartened or upset if the path is different than expected. Another important point was that ones' passion is allowed to alter and change just as much as it is allowed to stay the same. As we grow older, what we originally wanted from life may have developed into a different set of goals and desires. My thought is that this usually stems from the original passion itself. While I sometimes wish that I could make life a little easier for myself and suddenly find the desire to go to business school or something, all of my interests have to do with my love of being creative: acting, singing, writing, dancing, fashion(ing?). Whatever path I choose to follow, my original love of self-expression and the arts will travel with me throughout the journey.
I couldn't help but think about all that has happened in my life since I graduated from college just four years ago. And then I started thinking about how much will happen in the next four years, what will have happened by the time I'm sitting at my sister's college graduation in 2015. I can only hope that I will be mostly happy and continuing to challenge myself and follow what I love.
But this graduation was about my brother, not me, and so I should devote some time to talk about his brilliance. He graduated with a degree in architecture, and to see his designs is to see into the mind of an imaginative inventor. His friends in the program are equally bright and fascinating, and have an immense amount of support for each other. It was great to be in the presence of people excited about the journey ahead and appreciative about the experience they were about to leave behind. I can definitely say that I was not only inspired and motivated by the graduation speakers, but also by these bright young 20-somethings, not much younger than myself, who I have no doubt will thrive in the world they are now entering.
So I am currently reading a few books, one of which is Tina Fey's Bossypants, and I cannot recommend it enough. If you love the wit and humor of this hilarious woman, you will most certainly love reading her side-splitting stories and words of wisdom.
On vacation in the Midwest until the 16th...missing NYC but definitely in need of this break. My first challenge is allowing myself to sit around and relax without feeling guilty. This is proving to be slightly difficult, but I'm working on it.
[amanda]
Thanks for this :) I needed it.
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