John Green

In this episode of Commencement: Speeches for the Class of 2020, #1 New York Times bestselling author John Green encourages graduates to take a minute to remember and appreciate all of the people in their lives who have loved them up to this moment.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Commencement Speeches for the class of twenty is a production
of I Heart Radio. Class of Parents, Faculty, rising graduates.
Welcome to commencement. You made it. This year is a

(00:22):
little different, a difficult time to graduate because the traditional
graduation day has been put on hold. So we're bringing
it to you wherever you are, because this is still
your day, your moment. And now put your hands together.
It's time to be inspired. This year's commencement speaker the
one and only John Green. Hello to the class of

(00:55):
John Green. Here. I want to begin by saying congratulations.
I know it's hard to celebrate anything right now, surrounded
by dread and sadness, but what you've accomplished is real,
and it's important, and it's worthy of celebration. So congratulations.
I wish you all the best in your future. Well,

(01:17):
maybe all the best is a little unrealistic. I wish
you much of the best, I guess. The idea here
is to virtualize one ritual of graduation, the commencement address,
wherein someone stands before you and pretends to know something
about being a person, when in fact they are just
flailing around in fear and wonder like the rest of us.

(01:41):
To be honest with you, there aren't a lot of
things I enjoy less than a commencement address. But I
suppose one thing that's worse is a virtual commencement address,
since I can't even throw out a passing mention of
the local mascot or your school's troubled history. Although I'm
sure your school has a wonderful mascot and a very

(02:01):
troubled history. But here we are in non ideal circumstances,
trying to muddle through together, which has more or less
been the human story. I learned a lot in school
that I have carried with me through the years, But
when I look back on it, it seems to me
that the most important lesson was that I needed to
be vigilant in my struggle towards empathy, and that learning

(02:25):
is really a way of better understanding the world around
me and the other people who inhabit it. I have
a story about this. Actually. A couple of years after
I graduated from college, I was living in an apartment
in Chicago with four friends, one of whom was a
Kuwaiti guy named Hassan, And when the US invaded I
Rock in two thousand three, Hassan lost touch with his

(02:47):
family for several weeks. In the end, his loved ones
were all okay, but as you can imagine, it was
a very scary time for him, and one of the
ways he coped with this stress was by watching cable
news coverage of the war constantly. So the only way
to hang out with his son was to sit on
the couch and watch the news with him. So one

(03:09):
day we were sitting on the couch watching the news
together and the anchor was like, we're getting new footage
from the city of Baghdad, and a camera panned across
a house that had a huge hole in one wall
covered over by a piece of plywood, and on that
plywood was scrawled Arabic graffiti in black spray paint. And
as the news anchor started talking about the anger on

(03:31):
the Arab street or whatever, Hassan started laughing for the
first time in days. And I said, what's so funny?
And he said the graffiti, And I said what's funny
about it? And Hassan said, it says happy birthday, sir.
Despite the circumstances, for the rest of your life, you

(03:53):
will have a choice about how to read graffiti in
a language you don't know, and I hope that your
educate aation has encouraged you to consider the happy birthday, sir.
Despite the circumstances, possibility, the possibility that the lives and
experiences of others are as complex and as multitudinous as

(04:14):
your own. Other people, be they family or strangers near
or far, are not simply one thing or another, not
simply good or evil, or wise or ignorant. You will
spend your life inside of one single body, with just
one consciousness, and that will limit you, just as it

(04:36):
limits me and everyone. But the gift and challenge of
your education, whether you've studied astrophysics, or economics or literature,
is to better contextualize your vast self in an even
vaster universe, whatever lies ahead for you professionally and personally.

(04:57):
My wish for you is the same wish I have
for myself and for my children, that each of us
might find a way to serve the broader human endeavor
through our gifts and our talents, and through our empathy.
These days, horror abounds in every direction, and I don't

(05:17):
think it does much good to pretend otherwise, or to
minimize the instability and uncertainty of our time. This sucks,
and it's scary. Sometimes when I get scared, I think
about this middle school teacher I had. I was bullied
as a kid, and also I was often overwhelmed by

(05:38):
my mental illness. So anyway, one of my teachers held
me back after class one day. She told me that
she liked a story I had written. And then she said,
you're going to be okay, you know, not in the
short run. And then she paused awhile before adding and
not in the long run, but in the medium run.

(06:00):
And I found that so comforting because it was hopeful
without being a lie. When I was a kid, I
got so accustomed to adults lying to me that I
assumed all hope was a lie. But it isn't. Really.
Despair is the lie hope, As Emily Dickinson put it

(06:21):
is the thing with feathers that purchase in the soul
and sings the tune without the words and never stops
at all. When I look back on my education, I
don't remember that much about what I learned, not least
because I was a terrible student. But I do remember
who I learned with. I remember that teacher's kindness and generosity.

(06:46):
I remember the love I shared with my friends in
high school and college. Love that held me together then
and is still with me and still holding me together.
And so on the occasion of your graduation, I'd like
to ask you to spend a minute with me doing
something I learned from the children's TV host Fred Rogers.

(07:08):
I'd like to ask you to spend one minute thinking
of the people who loved you up into this moment. Friends, teachers, family, mentors.
Let's call those people to mind for one quiet minute.

(07:59):
M M. I know many of those people can't be

(08:31):
with you right now, and I'm sure that's very hard.
Maybe they're quarantined somewhere else, or maybe they're not here anymore.
But let me tell you something. All those people are
so proud of you today. They are so so proud.

(08:56):
I know that we have not left you with the
easiest path, and I'm sorry, but I have every confidence
in you, and I wish you a very happy graduation
despite the circumstances. You can find a collection of incredible

(09:23):
commitment addresses from all your favorite speakers at the Commitment
Podcast on I Heart Radio or wherever you listen to podcasts.