To the graduating Class of 2024, I offer this advice.
Wear sunscreen. It’s good advice I once heard in a Baz Luhrmann song.
Don’t take yourself so seriously. You are your own worst critics and only you have to live with your decisions. Life is far more flexible than you imagine.
Admire the pageantry of humanity but do not believe it. We all wear silly hats, like mortarboards.
“Youth is wasted on the young” is a phrase you will one day understand, but only too late. Take comfort knowing that your youth is given in fair trade for the wisdom you earn over time.
The arc of the universe tends toward justice, but you must bend it. People join causes if they have no because, so be cause.
Do not fear evil, but fear the indifference of good men and women. Never be indifferent.
With great power comes great responsibility and that power often consists of being in the right place at the right time.
Vote wisely at the ballot box, at the cash register and with your feet. Money is ink on cotton paper which people trade to you for your time. It does not buy happiness; you must find that on your own.
Question, protest, criticize, fight for justice, write and read letters, poetry, songs, speeches, sermons or legislation.
Armchair complaints do not leave your living room.
Youth, friends, lovers, coworkers, neighbors, money and fame all come and go. The world is one big small town. Treat its residents accordingly. Serve your community selflessly and it will repay you in kind.
Make art daily, so when you reach old age, you have a lifetime of beauty to remember.
Write poetry, even if it never leaves your notebook. If it does, proclaim it loudly from the stage.
Do not tell others how to think or speak. Persuade with rhetoric and logic. Do not be persuaded by emotion and passion, but by reason.
Put down your phone and go look at the moon and the stars.
Our ancestors have for 100,000 years.
You are never alone; they are in your bones.
Name constellations in your honor. Invent their mythologies.
If you are reading this: You are beautiful. You are perfect. Nothing is wrong with you.
Odin walks among us, so be welcoming to strangers. True friends will offer a lift when you’re stranded on a sofa for the night. Do the same. Don’t overstay your welcome.
Build yourself an army so you have ground to go to.
Being hated for honesty is more honorable than being loved for deception. Lies are hard to remember but the truth is easy to corroborate. If you borrow, cite your sources.
Dance. Your body is a gift that took 4.5 billion years to perfect. Use it unabashedly and shamelessly.
Embrace solitude, don’t fear it. It will save you on the lonely nights. Once a year, lie down in a gutter to learn how to sleep there if need be.
Send love letters, handwritten and in envelopes. Keep a box of all the love letters you receive.
Attend weddings and funerals whenever possible. Ceremonies bind us to our history and remind us of our humanity.
If you get cut, watch yourself bleed. Understand that time is doing the same thing to you. We are water and dust breathed into life with an expiration date.
Death is inevitable.
Accept this.
Live like the Grim Reaper may knock on your door tomorrow.
One tomorrow, he will.
If you have children, your world is their past. Give them memorable names.
Savor all the moments. Raise them intelligently; you owe it to your grandparents.
Teach daughters to be warriors.
Teach sons to be gentle.
Forgive your parents; they were young once, too. Where they failed, do not.
Family binds you to your ancestry and is the only thing that survives you. You are the microphone of your ancestors; your children echo you through time.
If you don’t have children, be a mentor. Your wisdom will shape the generations long after we are gone.
It takes guts to say “goodbye,” “I’m sorry” and “I love you,” so be brave.
Love like a brass section; love like brass knuckles.
Ask for advice. The best is offered freely. Take what you need and make a list. Change it whenever you change yourself. When you are old, offer advice to anyone. Some may forget it, others may ignore it, but a handful may take your best lines and repeat them long after you are again water and dust.
Words can kill, so use them wisely. Speak honestly and slowly. Enunciate with conviction. Your words will bind you when all else is lost.
Anonymity is for cowards, so always sign your name.
Proudly.
In ink.
The past is unchangeable, the future is unknowable.
You live in the moment between.
Glory is fleeting but obscurity is forever.
Become worth remembering.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
