Graduation Advice

For the past couple of weeks I have been receiving graduation announcements. Graduation is a time to celebrate the success of completing one’s education but for many graduating seniors, this is also a time that is filled with a great sense of uncertainty about the future. The challenges that lie ahead can be stepping stones or roadblocks.

Here is great advice for the graduate from Oprah Winfrey & Desmond Tutu.

Transform Your Wounds into Wisdom
Turn your wounds into wisdom. You will be wounded many times in your life. You'll make mistakes. Some people will call them failures but I have learned that failure is really God's way of saying, "Excuse me, you're moving in the wrong direction." It's just an experience, just an experience.

Oprah Winfrey
Wellesley College commencement, 1997

Spread Your Eagle Wings
And God says to all of us, you are no chicken; you are an eagle. Fly, eagle, fly. And God wants us to shake ourselves, spread our pinions, and then lift off and soar and rise, and rise toward the confident and the good and the beautiful. Rise towards the compassionate and the gentle and the caring. Rise to become what God intends us to be--eagles, not chickens.

Desmond Tutu
Brandeis University commencement, 2000