great ideas to live a life by Villanova Commencement Address ......... By Anna Quindlen (Pulitzer Prize Winner) Its a great honor for me to be the third member of my family to receive an honorary doctorate from this great university. Im a novelist. My work is human nature. Real life is all I know. Dont ever confuse the two: your life and your work. The second is only part of the first. Dont ever forget what a friend once wrote Senator Paul Tsongas when the senator decided not to run for reelection because hed been diagnosed with cancer: No man ever said on his deathbed I wish I had spent more time in the office. Dont ever forget the words my father sent me on a postcard last year: If you win the rat race, youre still a rat. Or what John Lennon wrote before he was gunned down in the driveway of the Dakota: Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans. You walk out of here this afternoon with only one thing that no one else has. There will be hundreds of people out there with your same degree; there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you will be the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk, or your life on a bus, or in a car, or at the computer. Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank account, but your soul. People dont talk about the soul very much anymore. Its so much easier to write a resume than to craft a spirit. But a resume is a cold comfort on a winter night, or when youre sad, or broke, or lonely, or when youve gotten back the test results and theyre not so good. Here is my resume. I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my profession stand in the way of being a good parent. I show up. I listen, I try to laugh. I am a good friend to the people I love. I have tried to make my relationship with them mean something. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my friends, and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today, . But I call them on the phone, and I meet them for lunch. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. So here is what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life....a real life. Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love or friendship is not leisure, it is work. Each time you look at your diploma, remember that you are still a student, still learning how to best treasure your connection to others. Pick up the phone. Send an e-mail. Write a letter. Kiss your Mom. Hug your Dad. Get a life in which you are generous. Look around at the full moon hanging silver in a black, black sky on a cold night. And realize that life is the best thing ever, and that you have no business taking it for granted. All of you want to do well , but if you do not do GOOD too then doing well will not be enough , Its so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours ,---- its so easy to exist instead of LIVE --- learn to love the journey not the destination . Life is not a dress rehearsal --- today is the only guarantee you get , learn to look at the good in the world .Just keep the eyes & ears open , the classroom is everywhere .[Learn to LOVE learn to Live ]
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 13:11:46 +0000
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