The most amazing convocation speech, ever. Read up & let it marinate.
[… excerpt]
The other side of the coin is this: fall in love.
I didn’t say “be loved”. That requires too much compromise. If one changes one’s looks, personality and values, one can be loved by anyone.
Rather, I exhort you to love another human being. It may seem odd for me to tell you this. You may expect it to happen naturally, without deliberation. That is false. Modern society is anti-love. We’ve taken a microscope to everyone to bring out their flaws and shortcomings. It far easier to find a reason not to love someone, than otherwise. Rejection requires only one reason. Love requires complete acceptance. It is hard work – the only kind of work that I find palatable.
Loving someone has great benefits. There is admiration, learning, attraction and something which, for the want of a better word, we call happiness. In loving someone, we become inspired to better ourselves in every way. We learn the truth worthlessness of material things. We celebrate being human. Loving is good for the soul.
Loving someone is therefore very important, and it is also important to choose the right person. Despite popular culture, love doesn’t happen by chance, at first sight, across a crowded dance floor. It grows slowly, sinking roots first before branching and blossoming. It is not a silly weed, but a mighty tree that weathers every storm. You will find, that when you have someone to love, that the face is less important than the brain, and the body is less important than the heart.
You will also find that it is no great tragedy if your love is not reciprocated. You are not doing it to be loved back. Its value is to inspire you.
Finally, you will find that there is no half-measure when it comes to loving someone. You either don’t, or you do with every cell in your body, completely and utterly, without reservation or apology. It consumes you, and you are reborn, all the better for it.
Whether we are fully aware of it or not, everything in this world happens for a reason. From an infinite selection of possibilities, the moments that click into place seem to happen only in the condition that all things leading up to it had occurred as well. While we seem to think the “big” choices such as what to study in college or where to live are what matter most, oftentimes the smallest decisions are the ones that dictate where we end up in the long run. After all, our lives are simply a progression of steps where, at any given moment, the most basic decision of turning left or right could open up very separate realms of possibility. Our realities are ultimately negotiated on the basis of second-to-second transactions, upon which tracing the trajectory of any path, we are led to believe one thing: Everything changes absolutely everything.
We all struggle with who we truly are and how we want the world to see us. This contant pressure we put on ourselves to save the world, a friendship, marriage, career, our image, prevents us from being our authentic selves. On the outside, our cape may look flashy but on the inside it chokes us. It’s time to take off the suit and show the world who you really are because real heros don’t believe they are superheros. They believe they are people.
Shadows settle on the place, that you left. Our minds are troubled by the emptiness. Destroy the middle, it’s a waste of time. From the perfect start to the finish line.
And if you’re still breathing, you’re the lucky ones. ‘Cause most of us are heaving through corrupted lungs. Setting fire to our insides for fun collecting names of the lovers that went wrong the lovers that went wrong.
We are the reckless, we are the wild youth chasing visions of our futures one day we’ll reveal the truth that one will die before he gets there.
And if you’re still bleeding, you’re the lucky ones. ‘Cause most of our feelings, they are dead and they are gone. We’re setting fire to our insides for fun. Collecting pictures from the flood that wrecked our home, It was a flood that wrecked this…
…and you caused it… …and you caused it… …and you caused it…
Well I’ve lost it all, I’m just a silouhette, A lifeless face that you’ll soon forget, My eyes are damp from the words you left, ringing in my head, when you broke my chest. ringing in my head, when you broke my chest.
And if you’re in love, then you are the lucky one, ‘cause most of us are bitter over someone. Setting fire to our insides for fun, to distract our hearts from ever missing them. but I’m forever missing him.
and you caused it, and you caused it, and you caused it.
