Last week, I had one of the most joyful experiences of my life: shaking the hands of 1,200 jubilant new graduates on a stage surrounded by towering cedars and overlooking the main square of The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.
These students had chosen me to help celebrate their big day by sharing my take on success and their futures with a commencement address. After I had given the speech, the college president invited me to shake a few hands as the students came up to receive their diplomas. I couldn’t stop. One by one the students processed up the ramp and across the stage, beaming with a sense of accomplishment and pride.
Being Evergreen (where freedom and individuality are celebrated and whose mascot is a geoduck), half of the students ornamented their green robes and mortarboards with funny or outlandish accessories. While there were plenty of plain old hardworking students, the procession sparkled with a festival of variety — veterans, vamps, grannies, moms with little kids in their arms, Native Americans, nerds, anarchists, jocks, stoners, and flamboyantly gay people. Looking into the eyes of nearly every graduate in that carnival of humanity, I was inspired by a beautiful and consistent thread connecting the amazing variety of people whose hands I shook. They had each worked hard for a degree because they had a mission in life to fulfill — and this day was a springboard for that determined future.
After a thousand handshakes, hugs, and high fives, I realized I was having the time of my life. The president said no speaker had ever stayed to shake hands like this, and I could sit down and relax. But I was an honorary part of the Evergreen family, privileged to be witness to so much joy, and having an absolute blast.
Preparing and then giving the speech was a rich experience. Rather than ad lib from notes, as I would normally do, 24 hours before the event my staff and I decided I’d treat it as a “read essay.” I’ve never read a talk before. In fact, when people read talks (especially pastors reading sermons), I wish they would just follow an outline and speak from their hearts. That’s my standard operating procedure. But preparing for this talk, I had so much I wanted to share in my allotted 20 minutes. The ideas and concepts were complex, and the wording needed to be finely crafted. And I wanted to be positive and uplifting. (I tend to rant.) With the help of my closest friends and staff, I massaged what I wanted to say into a tight essay, tweaked my references and phrasing to be in tune with my audience, “killed a few babies” (editor talk for deleting favorite bits that just don’t quite fit), and came up with a transcript I liked. Giving the talk — which ran 22 minutes — to 1,200 graduating students and three or four thousand friends and family was an absolute delight. If you’d like a traveler’s answer to “plastics,” check this out.
Thanks to the wonderful faculty and 2012 graduates of Evergreen for the honor of being a part of your commencement. If I inspired you half as much as you inspired me, it was a huge success all around.
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.
As you listen, watch and read what your heroes say – I have only one suggestion: be suspicious; be cynical; trust your instincts; trust your parents’ instincts.
Beautiful commencement speech by Rick Steves the activist and travel writer. With that sentence I shared your speech on Facebook. I think everybody needs to hear it. Thank you! Gisela F.
This sums it up for me. “American exceptionalism is the idea that the United States and the American people hold a special place in the world, by offering opportunity and hope for humanity, derived from its unique balance of public and private interests governed by constitutional ideals that are focused on personal and economic freedom”. When you belittle the word “austerity”, which is a much needed tonic to cure society’s ills, you instill the same fear in people that you rail against. Travel and experiencing the world are all laudable concepts, but today’s graduates need to hear that there is no such thing as a free lunch. No wonder there is such a divide in this country.
Um, you don’t grow an economy by cutting jobs and programs simultaneously. You certainly don’t do it by continuing to let the wealthy and corporations pay less and less in taxes…on the off chance that they will create jobs on their own. We’ve heard that lie already.
Frankly, there nothing exceptional about a country that gives lip service to caring about education, looks up at Third World nations with its poor infant mortality rate and keeps its head in the sand about the fact that it is running on a crumbling mid 20th century infrastructure.
Just saying…
Of course Mr. Steves believes in fighting wasteful government expenditure. What idiot would think otherwise? Rather, he cautions against the scoundrels who use austerity as ideology to promote their own self interest.
Congress is top heavy with millionaires who spout restraint so long as someone else pays for it. In the meantime no one of any consequence on Wall Street has been prosecuted for the willful destruction of American wealth. When representatives of both parties stand together and announce a 30% reduction in their salaries AND perks then I’ll take the word austerity a little more seriously.
Exceptionalism should be earned. Everyday. It should be forward looking. Being right or “best” in the past has little to do with today or tomorrow. If you can’t have your ideals challenged, then they are worthless. This country does itself few favors by isolating itself and disregarding the opinions and solutions others offer. It’s dangerous when Americans think we do things the right way solely because we are American. It’s circular reasoning, and this country engages in it too often. If you really want to know you’re right, you have to understand why other people think, feel, and act the way they do. More often than not, you’re going to find in the nuance that competing views aren’t right or wrong, better or worse, just different.
Thank you, Mr. Steves, for being one of the best travel writers/guides/ audio and tv hosts out there, and, an activist. There will always be folk who are so far to one side that they cannot hear another point of view. I appreciate your reminders that there is a world of people live and love the same as we do, have figured out solutions to some problems that we could learn from, and who do not think they are the only, exceptional, ones to do so.