Katie Couric

In this episode of Commencement: Speeches for the Class of 2020, award-winning journalist and New York Times best-selling author Katie Couric passes the torch for her generation to the graduating seniors and urges them to "be the change" they want to see in the world.

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Episode Transcript

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

(00:23):
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 Katie Kuric. Faculty, parents, friends, and most of all

(00:58):
graduating see years. Thank you so much. I'm so honored
to join you on this very important occasion. Wait a second,
that was a commencement address I delivered ten years ago.
What a difference a decade makes. Let's dispose of the

(01:19):
well worn bromides instead say the two words that many
of you have been thinking for weeks now. This sucks.
A global pandemic has handed all of you a big
old can of whoop bass. The only people who could
probably relate to this is the last class that had
to graduate during a pandemic, the class of nineteen eight.

(01:43):
You were robbed of that fleeting, liberating home stretch of
your college experience. Being with friends, going to your favorite
haunts for the last time, saying goodbye to your professor's,
celebrating a little too much, donning your cap and gown,
and walking to palm and circumstance as your proud parents
watch this monumental memory, making milestone. The final lesson of

(02:08):
your college years is a hard but critically important one.
Life is not fair. You've lost something that's, sadly you'll
never get back, and her poem One Art, Elizabeth Bishop writes,
the art of losing isn't hard to master, trying to
tell herself that loss can be handled, conquered, that she'll

(02:30):
be okay. But by the end of the poem, despite
her best efforts, her heart is in a million little pieces.
You've lost something precious too, so grieve but another Elizabeth
Elizabeth Coopler Ross, who spent her life studying death, wrote
about the stages of grief, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, the

(02:54):
final stage acceptance. So here we are. It is what
it is now what You'll need some very important life
skills to move forward. Perhaps the most important one is resilience.
According to one survey, three quarters of you who did
have job offers have had them resented, turned remote, or delayed.

(03:19):
Resilience is absolutely essential during these challenging and indeed traumatizing times.
I know what it's like to have your life up
ended by an unseen enemy. More than twenty years ago,
shortly after my fortieth birthday, my husband Ja was diagnosed
with metastatic calling cancer. After a nine month battle, he

(03:40):
succumbed to the disease. Our daughters were two and six
when he died. I was devastated. Broken. The life I
envisioned for my family was gone in an instant. But
I had to focus on what we still had, not
just on what we had lost. How could I pick
up the pieces and build it different but still wonderful life.

(04:04):
The human spirit is enduring and powerful. This will not
be the worst thing that has ever happened to you.
Use this experience to learn the critically important life lesson
of getting up after you've been knocked down. There's a
very good chance you'll need it in the future at
a time of great uncertainty. Resourcefulness will also come in

(04:27):
very handy. Who knew was going to be such a show.
Excuse my French, I'm pretty sure not even your valedictorian.
I recently talked to a man who, as a teenager
was homeless, but thanks to a father figure he met
along the way, he got back on his feet, see
the aforementioned resilience, and started a nonprofit called Love Beyond

(04:49):
Walls to help the community he was once a part of.
During the pandemic, he started to retrofit RV sinks so
the homeless have a place to wash their hands. Now
these things aren't just in Atlanta, They're in five other
cities across the nation. Disruption often inspires innovation. Look around,

(05:10):
pay attention, and imagine how our new reality will transform
the world around us. As biz Stone, the founder of Twitter,
once said, find a need and fill it. Now is
the perfect time to reassess and reconnect. This experience has
allowed us to think about a lot of things. The

(05:30):
path you truly want to pursue, the kind of person
you want to be, how and where you want to
spend your time. The author Any Dillard once said, how
we spend our days is, of course how we spend
our lives. Even if it feels like the world is
standing still, every single day has something to offer. What

(05:51):
it gives you is up to you. Don't waste it,
even if you're trapped in your home and your parents
are driving you absolutely crazy, because before you know it,
you'll be at your child's graduation and hopefully not listening
to their commencement speaker on a podcast. Another important Corona
life lesson. No matter how many virtual cocktails you have

(06:13):
with friends or face times with family, nothing can replace
spending time with the people you love up close and personal. Well,
not that up close just yet. Vivic Murphy, the Surgeon
General under President Obama, cited loneliness as a national epidemic.
In a recent interview. He told me, the greatest gift

(06:35):
you can give someone is your undivided attention. Remember that
when we can once again enjoy the pleasure of each
other's company. No one really knows what the next period
will look like, how and when we return to quote
unquote normal life. But instead of a new normal, perhaps
we can envision a better normal. Maybe we can come

(06:57):
out of this stronger, wiser, more compassionate, it more appreciative,
our north stars shining brighter than ever. A better normal
where we continue to recognize and celebrate the people who
check our vitals and prescribe our medicine, who teach us
long division and macro economics who help us get to

(07:17):
work and school and wherever we need to go on time.
And maybe that better normal means addressing the myriad of
issues that have been exposed and underscored by this pandemic.
Income inequality, systemic racism, a lack of access to healthcare.
My generation hasn't tackled some of these issues with much success.

(07:39):
I'm so hardened to see your generation care so deeply
and has the passion and commitment to, as Gandhi said,
be the change you wish to see. I'm so sorry
that right now I'm not looking out at a sea
of faces proud, excited, and a little bit scared, not
to mention, hung over. But wherever you are, whatever you're doing,

(08:03):
and whatever the future has in store, pat yourselves on
the back, throw a cap, any cap, into the air,
and celebrate because you did it and the world is
waiting for what you'll do next. You can find a

(08:29):
collection of incredible commencement addresses from all your favorite speakers
at the Commencement Podcast on I Heart Radio or wherever
you listen to podcasts.