Congratulations. You followed the plan, did the work and now you’re about to receive that sacred piece of paper that shows it. I know everyone here today to support you is proud.
But I hope you are proud of yourself, too.
This past year has a been like nothing we have experienced since Pandemic of 1918 — which was a long, long time ago.. And even I wasn’t around then.
2020 and 2021 have been years of disruption. The novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 was like Toto in the Wizard of Oz ripping back the curtain on the Wizard. It revealed weaknesses in our government, our institutions and in us as a people. Yet it also reveal great strengths. Your resilience — your ability to roll with the punches — will be the one thing you’ve learned in the past year that will be most valuable to you in the coming years.
I can tell you from experience. Change comes at you hard.
But let me tell you this: That’s not a bad thing. In fact, change stirs up the status quo. Like a miner sifting out sand to reveal a gold nugget, the chaos of change can reveal opportunities.
I wish someone had told me this at graduation.
I wish I remembered graduation.
I learned that lesson soon after I left college. My first job was as a high school janitor at Pope High School. Let me tell you this, I was darn lucky to have a job. But I didn’t know it then. I was too busy throwing a pity party (and serving snacks). I thought I was some kind of victim. It was the economy’s fault. It was the newspaper business’s fault (I wanted to be a cartoonist and no one was hiring). It was ______________’s fault. I used my energy to point fingers, not to look for opportunity.
One Sunday I went to church. Not to give you a Sunday school lesson but the preacher talked about the Parable of the Talents. If you aren’t familiar with the story, I’ll give you a quick recap. The boss leaves town and hands over this talents (a form of currency) to his three workers. One gets 10, one gets five and one gets one. The ones who got 10 and five invest theirs and multiply them. But the one who got one was TERRIFIED he’d lose it and disappoint his boss. So he buries it.
I felt a laser aimed right at my soul. I was afraid. I was afraid I was a failure. FEAR rocked my heart.
Fear is that voice that will whisper doubt in your ear at three in the morning.
Fear is that voice that agrees with your critics.
Fear is what causes you to self-destruct when the big chance comes your way.
Long story short, I changed my attitude and changed my life. I got busy drawing and I got busy not being like a fart in an elevator — which is someone people didn’t want to be around but couldn’t escape. I developed a positive outlook and soon launched my cartooning career.
Which, of course, imploded when the newspaper business itself imploded. I fell “victim” to budget cuts and was made part-time — this after being named a two-time Pulitzer Finalist. I learned quickly I didn’t have time for self-pity. I was in fight or flight mode. I had to reinvent myself and fast.
I also learned that experiments don’t fail. That trying new things and stumbling just meant I was changed the playing field and myself. I tried new things — something I wasn’t wired to do — and got better. I had to tell myself that it wasn’t because I was bad — it was because of a business decision by someone looking at numbers. I worked hard not to think of myself as a victim
That was so hard. But I saw friends get destroyed by that mindset. I had to bury the victim mindset and fast.
That meant I had to learn to respond to my situation, not react. (If I had truly responded, I would have anticipated the cutback — but I was too busy being worried).
This year has shown that while you may not be able to control things that happen to you, you have the power to respond them. You have navigated virtual learning, quarantines, illness, loss and pain. Everyone has lost something in this past year — whether it is as simple as not being able to eat in restaurant with friends or as extreme of losing a job or Godforbid, a loved one. But we humans are resilient. You sitting here today is proof of that.
You are not victims of the pandemic. You have been forged like iron into steel.
My advice to you? Learn to respond and not react. Trade worry for work. Take a moment when something happens and evaluate the situation. Look for the opportunity — angels come dressed in funny clothes sometimes. And learn empathy. Forget toilet paper, empathy is the one thing we had a huge shortage of last year. Everyone is going through something. As soon as you figure that out, you can help them get what they need.
And you will find out that is the true key to success. I know I am still learning those lessons even to this day.
So go out in the world and make it better. Start with your world around you and move outward.
It is an honor for me to be able to address you today. I, like those here to support you, am very, very proud of you and what you’ve accomplished.