Heres why the commencement speech is incredibly difficult to do well, and why most speakers resort to stringing together cliches and platitudes without straying too far into any sort of real critical thinking territory. Consider Jim Carreys commencement speech, which has received a lot of positive feedback from the broader public, but its actually a very awkward message for college grads. In essence, you probably chose your [career-, education-, life-] path out of fear disguised as practicality. The upshot and perhaps most creative insight from Carreys speech is that its better to fail at something you love than something you dont. Personally I find this idea compelling and worthwhile to think about, but Im not the audience Carrey is addressing. When I consider his message from the perspective of a college graduate, his point seems to point out that I spent several years and thousands of dollars pursuing something I chose out of fear disguised as practicality, and with this newfound awareness I can just double the time and money I spent on the worthless fear-driven degree Im about to receive and immediately get started on another one so I can do what I really love. See the problem is not that its bad advice, its bad timing. The advice applies perfectly to anyone on the first day of college, but one can hardly blame graduates who feel somewhat alienated and exhistentially restless after listening to Carreys speech.
Posted on: Fri, 13 Jun 2014 18:21:47 +0000
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