Congratulations to each of you. You should be proud of yourselves and proud of each other. We, most certainly, are proud of you.
Congratulations to your families and friends, who have supported you in so many different ways, inspired you, and loved you.
As you look back, I hope you have found a community at Lesley which challenged and encouraged you not only to acquire new knowledge and skill but also to discover and develop new parts of yourself, who you are, about what you care, and of what you now know you are capable.
As you look forward, I hope you view Lesley as both a place and a family to which you will always belong, and to which you can always return. I hope you view the challenges and opportunities before you with hope, excitement, and a readiness to take them on and make them yours. And, as troubling as we can sometimes find the world around us, I hope – I encourage – you to view it as a world YOU can make better through your teaching and your art, your counseling and your writing, your business ventures, your work in not-for-profits, and in your public service.
To do this well, given my academic discipline, I would ordinarily share a number of leadership lessons with you; remind you of what you have learned from your teachers, advisors, and coaches at Lesley; and bring you back to what you have studied, created, and accomplished, as a guide and as inspiration for the future. Reflecting on all of this is most certainly important. However, today, I want to share some different kinds of advice, some personal advice, some things to keep firmly in mind that I believe are critically important yet often overlooked, especially by bright, driven, passionate graduates as they go off into the world to make a life and make a difference.
In short, take time for yourself. In fact, make a habit of it.
Make a habit of regularly taking time to … Learn Something New. This could be as simple as learning a new word each day, reading a part of the paper you tend to overlook, wandering into a neighborhood in which you have never been, asking questions of and really listening to someone you just met, taking a new route to work and taking in the scene and the scenery. It can be as challenging as learning a new hobby, new craft, new practice, or new discipline. What we learn is important – it expands our life, our worldviews, and our impact. However, the very act of expanding our learning is even more important. Oliver Wendell Holmes aptly shared, “[One’s] mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.”
Make a habit of regularly taking time to … Question What Is. At the root of invention is challenging assumptions, and at the root of social change is imagining both what should be and what could be. How we understand things – our culture, our rules, and regulations – and how and where we focus our energy is shaped, and often bounded, by what we believe “simply is” – is true, is right, is best, is fair, is unchangeable. Knowing “what is” is indeed critical; it provides us with structure, security, and sanity. And yet, we have a long history that demonstrates to us that portions of what “simply is” must always be challenged – challenged through different lenses, imaginations, disciplines, and experiences; challenged with real openness of our ears, mind, and heart; challenged with a desire to understand and explore different beliefs and perceptions; and challenged with a desire for true dialogue. What you, our students, know – perhaps much better than many of our national leaders – is that success in changing “what is” takes far more than conviction and passion; it takes care for others, creativity with others, and collaborative action that brings together others to first see things, then imagine things, and finally to do things in truly new ways.
Make a habit of regularly taking time to … Enjoy Life. Life around us is neither perfect nor fair. There are serious problems, dangers, and inequities all around us. As a member of the Lesley family, we are each committed to better understanding these challenges and taking meaningful action to address them. At the same time, there is beauty, joy, hope, and opportunity in the world around each of us. Take time to enjoy the full picture of life. Revel in the afternoon sunlight, celebrate the milestones and achievements of family and friends, feel the warmth of love, ride a rollercoaster or read Proust, sing out loud or dance in public, disconnect and have a real conversation, feel the deep fulfillment of lending an ear or a hand, take a deep breath and then another, and slow down enough to enjoy who and what is around you.
Make a habit of regularly taking time to … Take Account. It is easy to be busy, to work hard, and to progress. Beware of confusing professional success with being a successful person. Step back every now and again and ask yourself about what you really care, what you really want to accomplish, and who you really want to be. How am I doing in my career? How am I doing as a son or daughter, mother or father, partner or spouse? How am I doing with pursuing my passions? How am I doing in making a desired contribution to society? How am I doing as a friend, mentor, coach, model, or leader? How’s my health, peace of mind, sense of balance? Take time to stop and really assess your progress, honestly and on all fronts.
As you refresh your measures of success and make your personal assessment of progress, you may find a need to make an adjustment or two, or even to make a wholesale rebalancing of how you focus your time and from what you gain meaning and satisfaction. And, as you move ahead from there, you may soon find yourself refreshed, renewed, and motivated in new and different ways. Albert Schweitzer once wisely shared, “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing (and I might add, if you also love why you are doing it), you will be successful.”
Finally, make a habit of regularly taking time … To Imagine. Without imagination, there is no change or progress forward – no civil rights movement or internet, no polio vaccine or air travel, no field of Expressive Therapies, methods of Reading Recovery, or college-based Threshold Program. Albert Einstein perhaps said it best when he shared, “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”
So, now, it is time for all of you to go everywhere – everywhere you dream to go, pursuing all that you dream to do. Pursue those dreams, and keep dreaming, inventing, designing, acting, and learning.
We place the future in your hands, in your dreams, and in your imaginations.
I implore you to dream big, and act even bigger.
Congratulations.