毕业典礼英语大学演讲稿模板（9篇范文）

毕业典礼大学英语演讲稿 模板1

阅读小贴士：模板1共计2802个字，预计阅读时长8分钟。朗读需要15分钟，中速朗读19分钟，在庄重严肃场合朗读需要26分钟，有220位用户喜欢。

想必大家一定都还记得randy pausch那篇曾经感动过无数人的《真正实现你的童年梦想》的演讲吧。我这里推荐的是他2024年5月19号(大约在他去世前的两多月)，在其母校卡内基梅隆大学毕业典礼上的演讲。这篇演讲只有6分钟左右，而且风格和之前的那篇很不同。在这篇演讲里，他少了些幽默，却多了些真诚的忠告。相信大家看后一定会受益匪浅。

最后，谨以此文献给randy pausch。

september 18, 2024

兰迪·波许在卡内基梅隆大学毕业典礼上的演讲 演讲稿中英文对照

i am glad to be here today, hell, i am glad to be anywhere today.

很高兴今天能够来到这里。天啊，今天不论在哪里我都很高兴。

president cohon asked me to come and give the charge to the graduates. i assure you, it"snothing compared to the charge you have just given me.

柯汉校长邀请我来给毕业生一些鼓励。我向诸位保证，你们刚刚给我的鼓励更多。

this is an incredible place. i have seen it through so many lenses. i saw it when i was agraduate student that didn"t get admitted and then somebody invited me back and said, ok,we"ll change our mind.

这所学校棒极了!我可从很多方面了解它。我也曾从这里毕业，遗憾的是并没有申请上研究生。然而一位恩师邀我回来并说：我们改变主意啦，你被录取了。

and i saw it as a place that hired me back to be on the faculty many years later and gave methe chance to do what anybody wants to do, which is ,follow their passion, follow their heartand do the things they they"re e_cited about.

许多年以后，我被聘回到这里执教。这是一个所有人都梦寐以求的机会。在这里，你可以追随热情，听从心灵的召唤，并能够做自己感到刺激的事。

and the great thing about this university unlike almost all the other ones i know of is thatnobody gets in your way when you try to do it. and that"s just fantastic.

这所学校胜过其他学校的地方在于当你尝试实现梦想时，没有人会阻拦你。这太美妙了!

and to the degree that a human being can love an institution. i love this place and i love all ofthe people and i am very grateful to jerry cohon and everyone else for all the kindness thathave shown me.

我无比的热爱这所学校，也爱这里的所有人。我十分感激柯汉校长和我的同事，感谢他们给我的温暖。

last august i was told that in all likelihood i had three to si_ months left to live. i am onmonth nine now and i am gonna get down and do any push-ups…but there will be a short pick-up basketball game later.

去年8月，我被告知只能再活3到6个月了。可现在已是第九个月了。我想低下身来做俯地挺身(他在人生最后一课时，小试身手，还幽默地说不要同情他，除非也能做那麽多下的俯地挺身)…但一会将有来一小段报队篮球赛(一般打半场，三对三，先进十一分或十五赢)。

somebody said to me, in light of those numbers, wow, so you aer really beating the grimreaper. and what i said without even thinking about is that we don"t beat the reaper by livinglonger. we beat the reaper by living well, and living fully.

当我说完前面的那些数字后，有些人对我说：天啊，你真的战神了冷酷的死神。而我毫不犹疑的回答他：仅靠多活几天是不能战胜死神的。战胜死神最好的方式是活得好，活得充实。

for the reaper will come for all of us, the question is what do we do between the time we areborn and the time he shows up.

人终会有一死，关键是从出生的那一刻起到死神降临的这一段时间内，我们都做了什麽。

"cause he shows up it is too late to do all the things that you"re always gonna kind of "get roundto". so i think the only advice i can give you on how to live your life well is, first off, remember,it"s a cliche, but love cliche, "it is not the things we do in life that we regret on our deathbed,it is the things we do not".

当死神降临时，想要做些我们一直想做而没时间去做的事，却已为时晚矣。因此，关于如何才能活的好，我给大家的唯一建议是，马上去做，请千万牢记，虽说这是老生常谈，但我喜欢老生常谈，"临终时我们不会后悔做过某些事，而是后悔没有去做某些事。"

"cause i assure you i"ve done a lot of stupid things and none of them bother me. all themistakes, all the dopy things and all the times i was embarrassed they don"t matter. whatmatter is that, i can kind of look back and say, "pretty much anytime i got a chance to dosomething cool, i tried to grab for it." and that"s where my solace come from.

坦率地说，我也曾做过很多蠢事，但它们中没有一件令我烦恼。所有那些犯过的错，做过的蠢事，还有令我尴尬的时刻，其实它们都不重要。真正重要的是，当我回首往事时，我会说：「只要有机会去做那些很酷的事，我将会毫不犹豫的去争取。」这才让我足堪告慰。

the second thing i would add to that, and i didn"t coordinate on the subject of this word but ithink it"s the right word that comes up, is passion. and you will need to find you passion.many of you have already done it, many of you will later, many of you will take till your 30s or40s. but don"t give up on finding it. alright? "cause then all you"re doing is waiting for thereaper. find you passion and follow it.

第二件我想说的事就是，我并没有规划用这个字眼。但我想这个字眼很合适，那就是“热情”二字。你们必须要找到自己的热情所在。你们当中有些人已经找到了，许多人将来也会找到，也许很多人要到三、四十岁时才找得到。但千万不要放弃寻找你的激情。好吗?因为你若放弃了，那你所能做的仅是等待死亡而已。去寻找你的热情所在，并追随它的脚步!

and if there"s anything i have learned in my life, you will not find passion in things. and youwill not find that passion in money. because the more things and the more money you have,the more you will just look around and use that as the metric, and there will always be someonewith more.

如果说我这一生中学到了什麽的话，那就是你不可能在物质中找到热情。你不会在金钱中找到热情。因为你拥有的财富越多，你就越有可能用它去衡量你周围的世界，然而总是有人比你更富有。

so your passion must come from the things that fuel you from the inside. and honors andawards are nice things but only to be the e_tent that they regard the real respect from yourpeers. and to be thought well of by other people that you think even more highly of is atremendous honor that i"ve been granted.

因此，热情必须来自于能从内在激发你。荣誉和奖赏是好事，但仅限于出于同行们真心的尊敬。或是像我一样能够被自己所尊敬的人所认同，这才是最大的荣幸。

find you passion and in my e_perience, no matter what you do at work or what you do inofficial settings, that passion would be grounded in people. and it will be grounded in therelationships you have with people, and what they think of you, when you time comes. and ifyou can gain the respect of those around you, and the passion and true love, and i"ve said thisbefore, but i waited till 39 to get married because i had to wait that long to find someonewhere her happiness was more important than mine. and if nothing else i hope that all of youcan find that kind of passion and that kind of love in your life.

去寻找你的热情吧。在我看来，无论你从事什麽样工作，处在怎样的环境当中，激情都是和人有关的。热情基于人与人之间的关係，基于当你离开人世时，人们对你的看法。如果你能赢的身边人的尊敬，正如我之前所说的你有热情和真爱。我等到39岁才结婚，是因为我必须等这麽久才能找到一位她的幸福比我的更重要的人。抛开一切其他不谈，我祝在座的各位，此生都能够找到那样的热情和真爱。

thank you!

谢谢!

毕业典礼大学英语演讲稿 模板2

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feelings, failure and finding happiness

感觉、失败及寻找幸福

thank you, president hennessy, and to thetrustees and the faculty, to all of the parents andgrandparents, to you, the stanford graduates. thank you for letting me share this amazing daywith you.

hennessy校长，全体教员，家长，还有斯坦福的毕业生门，非常感谢你们。感谢你们让我和你们分享这美好的一天。

i need to begin by letting everyone in on a little secret. the secret is that kirby bumpus,stanford class of "08, is my goddaughter. so, i was thrilled when president hennessy asked meto be your commencement speaker, because this is the first time i"ve been allowed on campussince kirby"s been here.

我决定透漏一个小秘密给大家来作为这次演讲的开始。这个秘密就是kirby bumpus，斯坦福2024年的毕业生，是我的义女。所以当hennessy校长让我来做演讲时，我受宠若惊，因为自从kirby来这上学以来，这是我第一次被允许到斯坦福来。

you see, kirby"s a very smart girl. she wants people to get to know her on her own terms, shesays. not in terms of who she knows. so, she never wants anyone who"s first meeting her toknow that i know her and she knows me. so, when she first came to stanford for new studentorientation with her mom, i hear that they arrived and everybody was so welcoming, andsomebody came up to kirby and they said, "ohmigod, that"s gayle king!" because a lot ofpeople know gayle king as my bff [best friend forever].

正如你们知道的那样kirby是一个非常聪明的女孩。她说，她希望大家通过她自己的努力了解她，而不是她认识谁。因此她从来不希望每一个第一次见到她的人知道她认识我。当她和她妈妈第一次来到斯坦福参加开学典礼时，我听说每个人都十分热情。他们说：“我的天啊，那是gayle king”。因为很多人都知道gayle king是我最好的朋友。

and so somebody comes up to kirby, and they say, "ohmigod, is that gayle king?" and kirby"slike, "uh-huh. she"s my mom."and so the person says, "ohmigod, does it mean, like, you knowoprah winfrey?"and kirby says, "sort of."

有些人走到kirby面前，对kirby说：“我的天啊，那是gayle king吗?”kirby说：“嗯，她是我妈妈。”然后人们说：“我的天啊，难道说，你认识oprah winfrey。”kirby说：“有点吧。”

i said, "sort of? you sort of know me?" well, i have photographic proof. i have pictures which ican e-mail to you all of kirby riding horsey with me on all fours. so, i more than sort-of knowkirby bumpus. and i"m so happy to be here, just happy that i finally, after four years, get tosee her room. there"s really nowhere else i"d rather be, because i"m so proud of kirby, whograduates today with two degrees, one in human bio and the other in psychology. love you,kirby cakes! that"s how well i know her. i can call her cakes.

我说：“有一点。你有一点认识我”。我还有照片为证。我可以把kirby 和我骑马时的照片e-mail给你们。因此我不仅仅只是有点认识kirby bumpus。我非常高兴来到这里，因为四年来我第一次来到她的寝室。我为kirby感到自豪，因为她获得了人类生物学和心理学的双学位。这就是我多么的了解她。我可以叫她cakes。

and so proud of her mother and father, who helped her get through this time, and her brother,will. i really had nothing to do with her graduating from stanford, but every time anybody"sasked me in the past couple of weeks what i was doing, i would say, "i"m getting ready to go tostanford."

我为她的父母感到骄傲，她的父母给了她很大帮助，还有她的哥哥will。我对kirby大学四年真的没有什么帮助。但是在过去的几周里，每当人们问我在做什么时，我都会说：“我正准备去斯坦福”

i just love saying "stanford." because the truth is, i know i would have never gotten my degreeat all, "cause i didn"t go to stanford. i went to tennessee state university. but i never wouldhave gotten my diploma at all, because i was supposed to graduate back in 1975, but i wasshort one credit. and i figured, i"m just going to forget it, "cause, you know, i"m not going tomarch with my class. because by that point, i was already on television. i"d been in televisionsince i was 19 and a sophomore. granted, i was the only television anchor person that had an11 o"clock curfew doing the 10 o"clock news.

我就是喜欢这样说stanford(用一种奇怪的语调)。因为这是真的，我知道根本不会拿到我的学位，因为我没有去斯坦福念书。我去了tennessee 州立大学。但是我本来不会拿到我的毕业证，因为我本应该在1975年毕业，但是我少了一个学分。我认为我还是会忘了这件事。你们知道，我不会比得上我的同班同学。因为我已经上了电视。我在19岁还是大学二年级的时候就已经上了电视。我是唯一一个电视节目主持人，虽然有11点的宵禁，却做着10点钟的新闻。

seriously, my dad was like, "well, that news is over at 10:30. be home by 11."

but that didn"t matter to me, because i was earning a living. i was on my way. so, i thought,i"m going to let this college thing go and i only had one credit short. but, my father, from thattime on and for years after, was always on my case, because i did not graduate. he"d say, "oprah gail"—that"s my middle name—"i don"t know what you"re gonna do without thatdegree." and i"d say, "but, dad, i have my own television show."

严肃地说，我爸爸告诉我，“好吧，新闻10：30结束。11点之前到家。”但是这对我并不重要，因为我已经自食其力了。我在走我自己的路。所以我想，我不能让关于我大学的那件事就这么过去，我还少一个学分。但是我的父亲从那时起却成了问题。由于我没有毕业，他总是说：“oprah gail(我的中间名字)，我不知道没有学位你能做些什么。”然后我说：“但是，爸爸，我已经有我自己的电视节目啦。”

and he"d say, "well, i still don"t know what you"re going to do without that degree."

and i"d say, "but, dad, now i"m a talk show host." he"d say, "i don"t know how you"re going toget another job without that degree."

他说：“好吧，但是我还是不知道没有那个学位你能干什么。”我说：“但是，爸爸，现在我已经是脱口秀的主持人了”。他还是说：“我不知道没有那个学位你怎么去找其他的工作。”

so, in 1987, tennessee state university invited me back to speak at their commencement. bythen, i had my own show, was nationally syndicated. i"d made a movie, had been nominated foran oscar and founded my company, harpo. but i told them, i cannot come and give a speechunless i can earn one more credit, because my dad"s still saying i"m not going to get anywherewithout that degree.

在1987年，tennessee州立大学邀请我回去做他们的毕业典礼演讲。在那时，我已经有了自己的电视节目，并加入了国家联合会。我制作了一部电影，并被奥斯卡提名，而且成立了我自己的公司harpo。可我告诉他们，我不能去演讲除非我得到那一个学分，因为我爸爸总是说没了那学位我将一事无成。

so, i finished my coursework, i turned in my final paper and i got the degree.and my dad wasvery proud. and i know that, if anything happens, that one credit will be my salvation.

因此，我完成了我的课程，上交了我的毕业论文，然后拿到了学位。我的爸爸非常的骄傲。从此我知道，无论什么事发生，那一个学分是我的救世主

but i also know why my dad was insisting on that diploma, because, as b. b. king put it, "thebeautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take that away from you." and learning isreally in the broadest sense what i want to talk about today, because your education, of course,isn"t ending here. in many ways, it"s only just begun.

但是我知道为什么我爸爸总是坚持让我获得文凭，因为，正如b. b. king所说：“关于学习的美好在于别人不会把知识从你身上拿走”学习正是我今天想说的，因为你们的教育并没有在这里结束。在很多情况下，这才是刚刚开使。

the world has so many lessons to teach you. i consider the world, this earth, to be like a schooland our life the classrooms. and sometimes here in this planet earth school the lessons oftencome dressed up as detours or roadblocks. and sometimes as full-blown crises. and the secreti"ve learned to getting ahead is being open to the lessons, lessons from the grandest universityof all, that is, the universe itself.

这个世界将会教会你们很多。我认为这个世界，这个地球，就像一个学校和我们人生的教室。有时这些课程会是弯路和障碍。有时会充满危机。我所学的应付这一切的秘密就是去勇于面对，正如我们面对大学课程一样。

it"s being able to walk through life eager and open to self-improvement and that which isgoing to best help you evolve, "cause that"s really why we"re here, to evolve as human beings.to grow into more of ourselves, always moving to the ne_t level of understanding, the ne_t levelof compassion and growth.

我们能够充满激情的去生活和自我提高，这就是我们存在的意义。不断自我提高，去追求人生的更高境界，去追求更高级别的怜悯和自我提高。

i think about one of the greatest compliments i"ve ever received: i interviewed with a reporterwhen i was first starting out in chicago. and then many years later, i saw the same reporter.and she said to me, "you know what? you really haven"t changed. you"ve just become more ofyourself."

我记得我所受到的最大的赞扬就是当我刚刚在芝加哥开始工作时，我采访了一个记者。很多年以后我们又见面了。她对我说：“你知道吗?你一点也没有变。你变得更为自我了。”

and that is really what we"re all trying to do, become more of ourselves. and i believe thatthere"s a lesson in almost everything that you do and every e_perience, and getting the lessonis how you move forward. it"s how you enrich your spirit. and, trust me, i know that innerwisdom is more precious than wealth. the more you spend it, the more you gain.

这就是我们一直努力在做的，去做我们自己。我坚信你们会从每一件做过的事上学到经验，这样你们就会取得进步。这样你们丰富了心灵。相信我，内在的智慧比外在的财富更加珍贵。你越是使用它，你就得到更多。

so, today, i just want to share a few lessons—meaning three—that i"ve learned in my journeyso far. and aren"t you glad? don"t you hate it when somebody says, "i"m going to share a few,"and it"s 10 lessons later? and, you"re like, "listen, this is my graduation. this is not about you."so, it"s only going to be three.

今天我想和大家分享我人生的三个经验。你们难道不觉得高兴吗?你们是否会反感，当有人对你说：“我想分享一些”但事实上却是10个经验。你们肯定在想：“听着，这是我的毕业典礼，不是你的”。因此这里只有三个经验我想和大家分享。

the three lessons that have had the greatest impact on my life have to do with feelings, withfailure and with finding happiness.

这三个经验对我的人生产生了很大影响，它们是关于感情，失败和追求幸福。

a year after i left college, i was given the opportunity to co-anchor the 6 o"clock news inbaltimore, because the whole goal in the media at the time i was coming up was you try tomove to larger markets. and baltimore was a much larger market than nashville. so, gettingthe 6 o"clock news co-anchor job at 22 was such a big deal. it felt like the biggest deal in theworld at the time.

当我离开大学一年后，在baltimore我得到了一个共同主持6点新闻的机会。在那时媒体界的最大目标就是获得更大的市场，而baltimore是一个比nashville大得多的市场，因此在22岁时得到这个机会对我来说非常重要。它那时对我来说它仿佛是世界上最重要的事。

and i was so proud, because i was finally going to have my chance to be like barbara walters,which is who i had been trying to emulate since the start of my tv career. so, i was 22 yearsold, making $22,000 a year. and it"s where i met my best friend, gayle, who was an intern atthe same tv station. and once we became friends, we"d say, "ohmigod, i can"t believe it!you"re making $22,000 and you"re only 22. imagine when you"re 40 and you"re making$40,000!"

我非常自豪，因为我终于有机会去效法barbara walters。而她正是我从业以来一直效法的对象。那时我22岁，每年挣22,000美元。我遇到了在电视台做实习生的gayle，我们立刻成了好朋友。我们说：“我的天啊，真难以置信。你在22岁时挣每年能挣22,000美元。想象一下吧，当你40岁时你每年就会挣40,000美元”

when i turned 40, i was so glad that didn"t happen.

当我真的40岁时，我很高兴这并没有成真。

so, here i am, 22, making $22,000 a year and, yet, it didn"t feel right. it didn"t feel right. thefirst sign, as president hennessy was saying, was when they tried to change my name. thenews director said to me at the time, "nobody"s going to remember oprah. so, we want tochange your name. we"ve come up with a name we think that people will remember and peoplewill like. it"s a friendly name: suzie."

这就是我，22岁时每年挣22,000美元，然而，这种感觉并不好。首先，正如hennessy校长所说，当他们试图让我改名字。那时导演对我说：“没人会记住oprah这个名字。因此我们想让你改名字。我们已经为你想了一个大家都会记住和喜欢的名字——suzie。”

hi, suzie. very friendly. you can"t be angry with suzie. remember suzie. but my name wasn"tsuzie. and, you know, i"d grown up not really loving my name, because when you"re looking foryour little name on the lunch bo_es and the license plate tags, you"re never going to findoprah.

suzie，一个很友善的名字。你不会厌恶suzie。记住suzie吧。但是我的名字不是suzie。你们可以看到，自小我就不怎么喜欢我的名字。因为当你在午餐箱和牌号寻找你的名字时，你永远也不会找oprah。

so, i grew up not loving the name, but once i was asked to change it, i thought, well, it is myname and do i look like a suzie to you? so, i thought, no, it doesn"t feel right. i"m not going tochange my name. and if people remember it or not, that"s ok.

我从小就不怎么喜欢我的名字，但是当我被告知去改名字时，我想，好吧，那时我的名字，但是suzie真的适合我吗?因此我想，它并不适合我。我不会改我的名字。我也不介意人们是否记得住我的名字，这没什么大不了的。

and then they said they didn"t like the way i looked. this was in 1976, when your boss couldcall you in and say, "i don"t like the way you look." now that would be called a lawsuit, butback then they could just say, "i don"t like the way you look." which, in case some of you in theback, if you can"t tell, is nothing like barbara walters. so, they sent me to a salon where theygave me a perm, and after a few days all my hair fell out and i had to shave my head. andthen they really didn"t like the way i looked.because now i am black and bald and sitting on tv.not a pretty picture.

然后他们还对我说他们不喜欢我的长相。那是在1976年，你的老板可以那么说。但是如果是现在的话，那就是一件很严重的事了。可是那时他们还是说：“我不喜欢你的造型。”我根本不像barbara walters。于是他们把我送到沙龙，给我烫了发。可是几天后我的头发一团糟。我不得不剃光我的头发。此时他们更不喜欢我的造型了。因为作为一个光头黑人坐在摄影机前，我肯定不漂亮的。

but even worse than being bald, i really hated, hated, hated being sent to report on otherpeople"s tragedies as a part of my daily duty, knowing that i was just e_pected to observe,when everything in my instinct told me that i should be doing something, i should be lendinga hand.

比光头更令我讨厌的是我不得不把播报别人遭受的痛苦作为我的日常工作。我深知我期待去观察，我的内心告诉我，我应该做些什么了。我需要为他人提供帮助。

so, as president hennessy said, i"d cover a fire and then i"d go back and i"d try to give thevictims blankets. and i wouldn"t be able to sleep at night because of all the things i wascovering during the day.

正如hennessy校长所说的那样，我播报了一起火灾，然后应当去给受害者拿毯子。由于白天播报的那些新闻导致我晚上难以入睡。

and, meanwhile, i was trying to sit gracefully like barbara and make myself talk like barbara.and i thought, well, i could make a pretty goofy barbara. and if i could figure out how to bemyself, i could be a pretty good oprah. i was trying to sound elegant like barbara. andsometimes i didn"t read my copy, because something inside me said, this should bespontaneous. so, i wanted to get the news as i was giving it to the people. so, sometimes, iwouldn"t read my copy and it would be, like, si_ people on a pileup on i-40. oh, my goodness.

与此同时我尽量表现的优雅一些，使我更像barbara。我认为我可能会成为一个傻傻的barbara。如果我做回我自己，我就会成为一个很棒的oprah。我努力像barbara那样优雅。有时我并不读我的稿件，因为我的内心告诉我这是不自主的。所以我想为大家播报一些我想要的新闻。有时，我不会播报像6个人在连环车祸中受伤这类的新闻。哦，我的天啊。

and sometimes i wouldn"t read the copy—because i wanted to be spontaneous—and i"d comeacross a list of words i didn"t know and i"d mispronounce. and one day i was reading copy and icalled canada "ca nada." and i decided, this barbara thing"s not going too well. i should trybeing myself.

有时出于内心的本能，我不会去播报一些新闻。我还会遇到一些不认识的和念错的词。一天当我播新闻时，我把加拿大读错了。我想这样下去学barbara可不大好。我应该做回我自己。

but at the same time, my dad was saying, "oprah gail, this is an opportunity of a lifetime.you better keep that job." and my boss was saying, "this is the nightly news. you"re ananchor, not a social worker. just do your job."

但那是我爸爸却对我说：“这是你一生的机会。你最好继续那份工作。”我的老板也说：“这是晚间新闻。你是播报员，不是福利工作者。还是做你的本职工作吧。”

so, i was juggling these messages of e_pectation and obligation and feeling reallymiserable with myself. i"d go home at night and fill up my journals, "cause i"ve kept a journalsince i was 15—so i now have volumes of journals. so, i"d go home at night and fill up myjournals about how miserable i was and frustrated. then i"d eat my an_iety. that"s where ilearned that habit.

我歪曲了这些期待和义务，并感觉很糟。晚上回到家后我会记日记。自从15岁时我就开始记日记了，于是现在我已经有了好几卷日记。我晚上回到家后，我会记录下我是多么的不幸和沮丧。然后我消除了焦虑。这就是我如何养成了那个习惯。

and after eight months, i lost that job. they said i was too emotional. i was too much. butsince they didn"t want to pay out the contract, they put me on a talk show in baltimore. andthe moment i sat down on that show, the moment i did, i felt like i"d come home. i realizedthat tv could be more than just a playground, but a platform for service, for helping otherpeople lift their lives. and the moment i sat down, doing that talk show, it felt like breathing. itfelt right. and that"s where everything that followed for me began.

8个月后我失去了那份工作。他们说我太情绪化了。但因为他们不想违背合约，他们就让我去baltimore主持一档脱口秀节目。从我开始主持那档节目的一刻开始，我感觉好像回到了家一样。我意识到电视不应该仅仅是一个娱乐场，更应该是一个以服务为目的的平台，以帮助他人更好的生活。当我开始主持节目的时间侯，就像呼吸一样。感觉好极啦。这就是我工作的真正开始。

and i got that lesson. when you"re doing the work you"re meant to do, it feels right and everyday is a bonus, regardless of what you"re getting paid.

这就是我学到的经验。当你做的是一份你喜欢的工作时，那感觉棒极了。无论你能挣到多少钱，你都会有很大收获。

it"s true. and how do you know when you"re doing something right? how do you know that? itfeels so. what i know now is that feelings are really your gps system for life. when you"resupposed to do something or not supposed to do something, your emotional guidance systemlets you know. the trick is to learn to check your ego at the door and start checking your gutinstead. every right decision i"ve made—every right decision i"ve ever made—has come frommy gut. and every wrong decision i"ve ever made was a result of me not listening to thegreater voice of myself.

这是真的。但是你怎么知道你所做的是对的呢?你怎么知道呢?我所知道的就是你的内心是你人生的导航系统。当你应该或者不应该改做某事时，你的内心会告诉你怎样去做。关键是去面对你自己，面对你自己的内心。我所做过的所有正确选择都是源自我内心的。我所做过的所有错误选择都是因为没有听取来自我内心的声音。

if it doesn"t feel right, don"t do it. that"s the lesson. and that lesson alone will save you, myfriends, a lot of grief. even doubt means don"t. this is what i"ve learned. there are many timeswhen you don"t know what to do. when you don"t know what to do, get still, get very still, untilyou do know what to do.

如果感觉不好，就不要去做。这就是我的经验。我的朋友，这个经验会帮你避免很多痛苦。甚至怀疑都意味着不要去做。这就是我所学到的。有很多次当你不知道如何去做时，什么也不要做，直到你知道怎么做为止。

and when you do get still and let your internal motivation be the driver, not only will yourpersonal life improve, but you will gain a competitive edge in the working world as well.because, as daniel pink writes in his best-seller, a whole new mind, we"re entering a whole newage. and he calls it the conceptual age, where traits that set people apart today are going tocome from our hearts—right brain—as well as our heads. it"s no longer just the logical, linear,rules-based thinking that matters, he says. it"s also empathy and joyfulness and purpose,inner traits that have transcendent worth.

当你什么也不要做时，让你的内心作为驱动力。不仅仅你的个人生活会提高，你在工作中也会获得竞争力。正如daniel pink在他的畅销书a whole new mind中所说的那样，我们进入了一个新时代，一个他称之为概念时代的时代。人们的内心使人与人之间产生隔阂。他说，重要的不仅仅是逻辑上的，线性的，直尺式的思维方式。移情，快乐，目标和内部特质同样也有卓越的价值。

these qualities bloom when we"re doing what we love, when we"re involving the wholeness ofourselves in our work, both our e_pertise and our emotion.

当我们做自己喜欢的事时，当我们全身心的投入到工作中时，这些特质就会焕发生机。

so, i say to you, forget about the fast lane. if you really want to fly, just harness your power toyour passion. honor your calling. everybody has one. trust your heart and success will come toyou.

因此我对你说，忘掉那些快车道吧。如果你真的像飞翔，就把你的力量投入到你的激情当中。尊重你内心的召唤。每一个人都会有的。相信你的心灵，你会成功的。

so, how do i define success? let me tell you, money"s pretty nice. i"m not going to stand uphere and tell you that it"s not about money, "cause money is very nice. i like money. it"s goodfor buying things.

那么我是如何定义成功的呢?让我告诉你，钱很美好。我不会告诉你们成功与钱无关，因为钱是好东东。我喜欢钱。它能买东西。

but having a lot of money does not automatically make you a successful person. what youwant is money and meaning. you want your work to be meaningful. because meaning is whatbrings the real richness to your life. what you really want is to be surrounded by people youtrust and treasure and by people who cherish you. that"s when you"re really rich.so, lessonone, follow your feelings. if it feels right, move forward. if it doesn"t feel right, don"t do it.

但是拥有很多钱并不能使你自然而然的成为一个成功者。你想要的是钱和意义。你想你的工作更有意义。因为有意义使你的生活更加充实。你所希望得到的是被信任你珍视你的人包围。这才是你真正富有的时候。因此，第一个经验，跟随你的心灵。如果感觉对了，就继续前进。如果感觉不对，就不要做了。

now i want to talk a little bit about failings, because nobody"s journey is seamless or smooth.we all stumble. we all have setbacks. if things go wrong, you hit a dead end—as you will—it"sjust life"s way of saying time to change course. so, ask every failure—this is what i do withevery failure, every crisis, every difficult time—i say, what is this here to teach me? and as soonas you get the lesson, you get to move on. if you really get the lesson, you pass and you don"thave to repeat the class. if you don"t get the lesson, it shows up wearing another pair of pants—or skirt—to give you some remedial work.

现在我想谈谈失败。没有人他的一生是一帆风顺的。我们都会遇到困难，受到挫折。如果事情出错了，你进入了死胡同，这正是生活在告诉你是时候改变了。所以，每当遇到困难和危机时，我都会问它教会了我什么?只要你吸取了教训，你就会继续前进。如果你真正吸取了教训，你就会顺利通过考验，不用再取经受失败了。如果你没有吸取教训，它会以另外一种形式给出现在你面前并给你一些补救。

and what i"ve found is that difficulties come when you don"t pay attention to life"s whisper,because life always whispers to you first. and if you ignore the whisper, sooner or later you"llget a scream. whatever you resist persists. but, if you ask the right question—not why is thishappening, but what is this here to teach me?—it puts you in the place and space to get thelesson you need.

我注意到当你没有仔细对待生活的细节时，困难就会出现。因为生活总是提前低声的告戒你。如果你忽视了这个低声的告诫，过不了多久你就会得到一个惊声尖叫，无论你怎样反抗。但是如果你不去想为什困难会发生，而是去反思困难会教给我什么时，你就会学到你需要的东西。

my friend eckhart tolle, who"s written this wonderful book called a new earth that"s all aboutletting the awareness of who you are stimulate everything that you do, he puts it like this:he says, don"t react against a bad situation; merge with that situation instead. and thesolution will arise from the challenge. because surrendering yourself doesn"t mean giving up;it means acting with responsibility.

我的朋友eckhart tolle。他写了一本非常棒的书，名叫a new earth。这本书就是关于让你的意识激励你去做事。他说，不要去反抗困境，相反，要融入到其中。事情会变的越来越好的。因为暂时的屈服并不意味着放弃，它意味着一种责任感。

many of you know that, as president hennessy said, i started this school in africa. and ifounded the school, where i"m trying to give south african girls a shot at a future like yours—stanford. and i spent five years making sure that school would be as beautiful as thestudents. i wanted every girl to feel her worth reflected in her surroundings. so, i checkedevery blueprint, i picked every pillow. i was looking at the grout in between the bricks. i knewevery thread count of the sheets. i chose every girl from the villages, from nine provinces. andyet, last fall, i was faced with a crisis i had never anticipated. i was told that one of the dormmatrons was suspected of se_ual abuse.

你们当中很多人都知道，正如hennessy校长所说，我在非洲创办了一个学校。我希望给南非的女孩们一个像你们一样的未来。我花了5年时间来确保学校会像学生们一样好。我想让每一个女孩感觉到自己的价值受到重视。所以我检查了每一个设计图，亲自挑选每个枕头，甚至检查砖块间的水泥。我知道每一个细节。每一学生都是我从9个省的村落里亲自选出来的。然而，去年的秋天我却遇到了一个我从未预料的危机。我被告知有一名宿舍管理员涉嫌性虐待。

that was, as you can imagine, devastating news. first, i cried—actually, i sobbed—for abouthalf an hour. and then i said, let"s get to it; that"s all you get, a half an hour. you need to focuson the now, what you need to do now. so, i contacted a child trauma specialist. i put togethera team of investigators. i made sure the girls had counseling and support. and gayle and i goton a plane and flew to south africa.

你们可以想象得到这是多么令人沮丧的消息啊。首先，我哭了，啜泣了大约半个小时。然后我说，我们得面对它。一个半小时，这就是你全部所能得到的。你需要把注意力集中到现在，现在你因该做些什么。所以我联系了一位儿科创伤专家。我派了一队调查人员。我确定女孩们得到了安慰和支持。gayle和我坐上飞机飞向南非。

and the whole time i kept asking that question: what is this here to teach me? and, as difficultas that e_perience has been, i got a lot of lessons. i understand now the mistakes i made,because i had been paying attention to all of the wrong things. i"d built that school from theoutside in, when what really mattered was the inside out.so, it"s a lesson that applies to all ofour lives as a whole. what matters most is what"s inside. what matters most is the sense ofintegrity, of quality and beauty. i got that lesson. and what i know is that the girls cameaway with something, too. they have emerged from this more resilient and knowing that theirvoices have power.

整个过程中我都在问自己：“这件事教会了我什么?”虽然这个经历十分困难，但是我学到了很多。我意识到自己所犯的错误，因为我一直以来都把注意力集中在错事上。我从外向内建造了那所学校，然而正真对我有意义的是从内向外的去建造它。最重要的是我对正直，品质和美好的理解。我学到了那个教训。我也明白女孩们也学到了一些事。她们从中恢复了过来并意识到她们的声音是有影响力的。

and their resilience and spirit have given me more than i could ever give to them, which leadsme to my final lesson—the one about finding happiness—which we could talk about all day, buti know you have other wacky things to do.

她们的恢复力和精神给了我很多东西，以至于比我给她们的还多。接下来是我最后的经验—关于寻找幸福，我可以谈论一整天，但是我有其他古怪的事要做。

not a small topic this is, finding happiness. but in some ways i think it"s the simplest of all.gwendolyn brooks wrote a poem for her children. it"s called "speech to the young : speech tothe progress-toward." and she says at the end, "live not for battles won. / live not for the-end-of-the-song. / live in the along." she"s saying, like eckhart tolle, that you have to live for thepresent. you have to be in the moment. whatever has happened to you in your past has nopower over this present moment, because life is now.

追求幸福并不是一个小话题。但在某种程度上来说它又是最简单的话题。gwendolyn brooks为她的孩子写了一首诗，诗名是speech to the young : speech to the progress-toward.在诗的最后她说到，不要为了战胜而生活，不要为了歌曲的结尾而生活，要享受生活。她说，你应当为了现在而生活，无论过去发生了什么都不应该影响到现在，因为生活就是过好现在。

but i think she"s also saying, be a part of something. don"t live for yourself alone. this is what iknow for sure: in order to be truly happy, you must live along with and you have to stand forsomething larger than yourself. because life is a reciprocal e_change. to move forward youhave to give back. and to me, that is the greatest lesson of life. to be happy, you have to givesomething back.

我想她还说过，去参与一些事。不要仅仅为了自己而生活。我可以非常肯定的是为了追求真正的快乐，你必须为了一些更有意义的事而生活。生活是互动的。为了前进，你必须后退。对于我而言，这是人生中最重要的经验。想要获得快乐你必须付出。

i know you know that, because that"s a lesson that"s woven into the very fabric of thisuniversity. it"s a lesson that jane and leland stanford got and one they"ve bequeathed to you.because all of you know the story of how this great school came to be, how the stanfords losttheir only child to typhoid at the age of 15. they had every right and they had every reason toturn their backs against the world at that time, but instead, they channeled their grief andtheir pain into an act of grace. within a year of their son"s death, they had made the foundinggrant for this great school, pledging to do for other people"s children what they were not ableto do for their own boy.

我知道你们已经很了解了，因为这个经验已经深深的融入了斯坦福。这个经验是jane and leland传承给你们的。因为你们所有的人都知道这座伟大的大学是如何建成的。斯坦福夫妇的独子在15岁时得了伤寒离开了他们。他们有权利和理由去恨这个世界，但是他们却用优雅的行动疏导了心中的悲伤。在他们儿子死后不到一年内，他们已经这所伟大的大学筹集了建设经费，并发誓要为别人的孩子做一些他们自己的孩子不能得到事。

the lesson here is clear, and that is, if you"re hurting, you need to help somebody ease theirhurt. if you"re in pain, help somebody else"s pain. and when you"re in a mess, you get yourselfout of the mess helping somebody out of theirs. and in the process, you get to become amember of what i call the greatest fellowship of all, the sorority of compassion and thefraternity of service.

这个经验非常明显，那就是，如果你受了伤，你需要帮助他人减轻伤痛。如果你感到痛苦，帮助他人减轻痛苦。如果你的生活一团糟，去帮助其他处在困难中的人摆脱困境。这样一来，你就变成了妇女联谊会或是互助会中最伟大的一个员。

the stanfords had suffered the worst thing any mom and dad can ever endure, yet theyunderstood that helping others is the way we help ourselves. and this wisdom is increasinglysupported by scientific and sociological research. it"s no longer just woo-woo soft-skills talk.there"s actually a helper"s high, a spiritual surge you gain from serving others. so, if you wantto feel good, you have to go out and do some good.

斯坦福夫妇遭受了世上父母所能遭受的最大痛苦，然而他们懂得通过帮助他人来帮助自己。这种智慧渐渐的被科学和社会学研究所证实。这不仅仅是某种软技能的谈话。这事实上是在帮助者的高度，一种从帮助别人而获得的精神大爆发。所以如果你想快乐，去帮助别人吧。

but when you do good, i hope you strive for more than just the good feeling that serviceprovides, because i know this for sure, that doing good actually makes you better. so, whateverfield you choose, if you operate from the paradigm of service, i know your life will have morevalue and you will be happy.

但是当你做好事时，我希望你不仅仅是为了获得的快乐，因为我深知做好事可以让你变得更棒。所以无论你怎样选择，若你能以服务他人为榜样，我相信你的生活会更有价值，你也会更快乐。

i was always happy doing my talk show, but that happiness reached a depth of fulfillment, ofjoy, that i really can"t describe to you or measure when i stopped just being on tv andlooking at tv as a job and decided to use television, to use it and not have it use me, to use itas a platform to serve my viewers. that alone changed the trajectory of my success.

我也很高兴做我的脱口秀节目，那种快乐是一种更深层次的成就感，我很难去表达和衡量。我决定以电视作为我的职业，我要用电视这个平台来为我的观众服务，而不是让电视利用我。这改变了我成功的轨迹。

so, i know this—that whether you"re an actor, you offer your talent in the way that mostinspires art. if you"re an anatomist, you look at your gift as knowledge and service to healing.whether you"ve been called, as so many of you here today getting doctorates and otherdegrees, to the professions of business, law, engineering, humanities, science, medicine, if youchoose to offer your skills and talent in service, when you choose the paradigm of service,looking at life through that paradigm, it turns everything you do from a job into a gift. and iknow you haven"t spent all this time at stanford just to go out and get a job.

我知道无论你是否是一名演员，你都应该把你的才智贡献给能够鼓舞他人的事业。如果你是一名剖析家，你应当把你们的智慧投入到医治他人当中。无论你是否被召唤，你们中的很多人在经济，法律，人权，科学，医药方面都获得了诸如博士一类的学位，如果你们决定把你们的技能和智慧奉献给服务他人们，选择把服务他人作为榜样，你们的工作就会变成一种天赋。我知道你们在斯坦福所在的一切就是为了出去找一份工作。

you"ve been enriched in countless ways. there"s no better way to make your mark on the worldand to share that abundance with others. my constant prayer for myself is to be used inservice for the greater good.

你们在很多方面都得到了提高。没有其它更好的方式能够分享你的丰富的才智了。我永恒的祈祷就是让自己能够为他人提供更好的服务

so, let me end with one of my favorite quotes from martin luther king. dr. king said, "noteverybody can be famous." and i don"t know, but everybody today seems to want to be famous.

就让我引用马丁路德金的话来作为结束语吧。他说：“不是所有人都会出名。”我不知道，但似乎今天所有人都想出名。

but fame is a trip. people follow you to the bathroom, listen to you pee. it"s just—try to peequietly. it doesn"t matter, they come out and say, "ohmigod, it"s you. you peed."

但是成名也是一种代价。有些人会尾随你到卫生间，听你尿尿。你会尽量尿的轻一些。这没什么大不了的。他们会对你说：“我的天啊，是你!你尿尿啦。”

that"s the fame trip, so i don"t know if you want that.

这就是成名的代价，我不知道你们是否喜欢。

so, dr. king said, "not everybody can be famous. but everybody can be great, becausegreatness is determined by service." those of you who are history scholars may know the restof that passage. he said, "you don"t have to have a college degree to serve. you don"t have tomake your subject and verb agree to serve. you don"t have to know about plato or aristotle toserve. you don"t have to know einstein"s theory of relativity to serve. you don"t have to knowthe second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. you only need a heart full of graceand a soul generated by love."

所以，正如马丁路德金所说，“不是所有人都会成名。但每个人都可以变的伟大，因为伟大是通过为他人服务而界定的。” 你们当中学历史的人可能会知道他接下来的话，“为别人提供服务，并不一定要有大学学历，并不一定要主谓一致，并不一定要认识柏拉图和亚里士多德，并不一定要会爱因斯坦的相对论，并不一定要了解热力学第二定律。你所需要的是一颗优雅的心灵和充满爱的灵魂。”

in a few moments, you"ll all be officially stanford"s "08.

不久你们就会正式成为斯坦福大学2024年的毕业生了。

you have the heart and the smarts to go with it. and it"s up to you to decide, really, where willyou now use those gifts? you"ve got the diploma, so go out and get the lessons, "cause i knowgreat things are sure to come.

你们有聪明才智。你们将会决定如何利用它。说真的，你们将会如何利用它呢?你们拿到了学位。走向社会吧，我坚信伟大的事将会发生的。

you know, i"ve always believed that everything is better when you share it, so before i go, iwanted to share a graduation gift with you. underneath your seats you"ll find two of my favoritebooks. eckhart tolle"s a new earth is my current book club selection. our new earth webcasthas been downloaded 30 million times with that book. and daniel pink"s a whole new mind:why right-brainers will rule the future has reassured me i"m in the right direction.

你们知道，我一直坚信，如果你和他人分享，那么事情就会变得更好。所以在我离开之前，我想和大家分享一下毕业礼物。在你们的座位底下，你们会发现两本我最喜欢的书。eckhart tolle的a new earth流行书俱乐部的精选品。我们的new earth广播已经被下载3亿次。daniel pink的a whole new mind: why right-brainers will rule the future 使我确定我在人生的正轨上。

i really wanted to give you cars but i just couldn"t pull that off! congratulations, "08!

我真的想送大家轿车，只是开不过来!祝贺大家!2024年的毕业生们!

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president powers, provost fenves, deans, members of the faculty, family and friends and mostimportantly, the class of 2024. congratulations on your achievement.

it"s been almost 37 years to the day that i graduated from ut.

i remember a lot of things about that day.

i remember i had throbbing headache from a party the night before. i remember i had aserious girlfriend, whom i later married-that"s important to remember by the way-and iremember that i was getting commissioned in the navy that day.

but of all the things i remember, i don"t have a clue who the commencement speaker wasthat evening and i certainly don"t remember anything they said.

so…acknowledging that fact-if i can"t make this commencement speech memorable-i will atleast try to make it short.

the university"s slogan is,

"what starts here changes the world."

i have to admit-i kinda like it.

"what starts here changes the world."

tonight there are almost 8,000 students graduating from ut.

that great paragon of analytical rigor, ask.com says that the average american will meet10,000 people in their life time.

that"s a lot of folks.

but, if every one of you changed the lives of just ten people-and each one of those folkschanged the lives of another ten people-just ten-then in five generations-125 years-the class of2024 will have changed the lives of 800 million people.

800 million people-think of it-over twice the population of the united states. go one moregeneration and you can change the entire population of the world-8 billion people.

if you think it"s hard to change the lives of ten people-change their lives forever-you"re wrong.

i saw it happen every day in iraq and afghanistan.

a young army officer makes a decision to go left instead of right down a road in baghdad andthe ten soldiers in his squad are saved from close-in ambush.

in kandahar province, afghanistan, a non-commissioned officer from the female engagementteam senses something isn"t right and directs the infantry platoon away from a 500 poundied, saving the lives of a dozen soldiers.

but, if you think about it, not only were these soldiers saved by the decisions of one person, buttheir children yet unborn-were also saved. and their children"s children-were saved.

generations were saved by one decision-by one person.

but changing the world can happen anywhere and anyone can do it.

so, what starts here can indeed change the world, but the question is…what will the world looklike after you change it?

well, i am confident that it will look much, much better, but if you will humor this old sailorfor just a moment, i have a few suggestions that may help you on your way to a better a world.

and while these lessons were learned during my time in the military, i can assure you that itmatters not whether you ever served a day in uniform.

it matters not your gender, your ethnic or religious background, your orientation, or yoursocial status.

our struggles in this world are similar and the lessons to overcome those struggles and tomove forward-changing ourselves and the world around us-will apply equally to all.

i have been a navy seal for 36 years. but it all began when i left ut for basic seal training incoronado, california.

basic seal training is si_ months of long torturous runs in the soft sand, midnight swims in thecold water off san diego, obstacles courses, unending calisthenics, days without sleep andalways being cold, wet and miserable.

it is si_ months of being constantly harassed by professionally trained warriors who seek tofind the weak of mind and body and eliminate them from ever becoming a navy seal.

but, the training also seeks to find those students who can lead in an environment ofconstant stress, chaos, failure and hardships.

to me basic seal training was a life time of challenges crammed into si_ months.

so, here are the ten lesson"s i learned from basic seal training that hopefully will be of value toyou as you move forward in life.

every morning in basic seal training, my instructors, who at the time were all vietnamveterans, would show up in my barracks room and the first thing they would inspect was yourbed.

if you did it right, the corners would be square, the covers pulled tight, the pillow centered justunder the headboard and the e_tra blanket folded neatly at the foot of the rack-rack-that"snavy talk for bed.

it was a simple task-mundane at best. but every morning we were required to make our bedto perfection. it seemed a little ridiculous at the time, particularly in light of the fact thatwere aspiring to be real warriors, tough battle hardened seals-but the wisdom of this simpleact has been proven to me many times over.

if you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. itwill give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and anotherand another.

by the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed.making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter.

if you can"t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.

and, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made-thatyou made-and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.

if you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.

during seal training the students are broken down into boat crews. each crew is sevenstudents-three on each side of a small rubber boat and one co_swain to help guide the dingy.

every day your boat crew forms up on the beach and is instructed to get through the surfzoneand paddle several miles down the coast.

in the winter, the surf off san diego can get to be 8 to 10 feet high and it is e_ceedinglydifficult to paddle through the plunging surf unless everyone digs in.

every paddle must be synchronized to the stroke count of the co_swain. everyone must e_ertequal effort or the boat will turn against the wave and be unceremoniously tossed back on thebeach.

for the boat to make it to its destination, everyone must paddle.

you can"t change the world alone-you will need some help- and to truly get from your startingpoint to your destination takes friends, colleagues, the good will of strangers and a strongco_swain to guide them.

if you want to change the world, find someone to help you paddle.

over a few weeks of difficult training my seal class which started with 150 men was down tojust 35. there were now si_ boat crews of seven men each.

i was in the boat with the tall guys, but the best boat crew we had was made up of the thelittle guys-the munchkin crew we called them-no one was over about 5-foot five.

the munchkin boat crew had one american indian, one african american, one polish american,one greek american, one italian american, and two tough kids from the mid-west.

they out paddled, out-ran, and out swam all the other boat crews.

the big men in the other boat crews would always make good natured fun of the tiny littleflippers the munchkins put on their tiny little feet prior to every swim.

but somehow these little guys, from every corner of the nation and the world, always had thelast laugh- swimming faster than everyone and reaching the shore long before the rest of us.

seal training was a great equalizer. nothing mattered but your will to succeed. not your color,not your ethnic background, not your education and not your social status.

if you want to change the world, measure a person by the size of their heart, not the size oftheir flippers.

several times a week, the instructors would line up the class and do a uniform inspection. itwas e_ceptionally thorough.

your hat had to be perfectly starched, your uniform immaculately pressed and your belt buckleshiny and void of any smudges.

but it seemed that no matter how much effort you put into starching your hat, or pressingyour uniform or polishing your belt buckle-- it just wasn"t good enough.

the instructors would fine "something" wrong.

for failing the uniform inspection, the student had to run, fully clothed into the surfzone andthen, wet from head to toe, roll around on the beach until every part of your body was coveredwith sand.

the effect was known as a "sugar cookie." you stayed in that uniform the rest of the day-cold,wet and sandy.

there were many a student who just couldn"t accept the fact that all their effort was in vain.that no matter how hard they tried to get the uniform right-it was unappreciated.

those students didn"t make it through training.

those students didn"t understand the purpose of the drill. you were never going to succeed.you were never going to have a perfect uniform.

sometimes no matter how well you prepare or how well you perform you still end up as asugar cookie.

it"s just the way life is sometimes.

if you want to change the world get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward.

every day during training you were challenged with multiple physical events-long runs, longswims, obstacle courses, hours of calisthenics-something designed to test your mettle.

every event had standards-times you had to meet. if you failed to meet those standards yourname was posted on a list and at the end of the day those on the list were invited to-a "circus."

a circus was two hours of additional calisthenics-designed to wear you down, to break yourspirit, to force you to quit.

no one wanted a circus.

a circus meant that for that day you didn"t measure up. a circus meant more fatigue-andmore fatigue meant that the following day would be more difficult-and more circuses werelikely.

but at some time during seal training, everyone-everyone-made the circus list.

but an interesting thing happened to those who were constantly on the list. overtime thosestudents--who did two hours of e_tra calisthenics-got stronger and stronger.

the pain of the circuses built inner strength-built physical resiliency.

life is filled with circuses.

you will fail. you will likely fail often. it will be painful. it will be discouraging. at times it willtest you to your very core.

but if you want to change the world, don"t be afraid of the circuses.

at least twice a week, the trainees were required to run the obstacle course. the obstaclecourse contained 25 obstacles including a 10-foot high wall, a 30-foot cargo net, and a barbedwire crawl to name a few.

but the most challenging obstacle was the slide for life. it had a three level 30 foot tower atone end and a one level tower at the other. in between was a 200-foot long rope.

you had to climb the three tiered tower and once at the top, you grabbed the rope, swungunderneath the rope and pulled yourself hand over hand until you got to the other end.

the record for the obstacle course had stood for years when my class began training in 1977.

the record seemed unbeatable, until one day, a student decided to go down the slide for life-head first.

instead of swinging his body underneath the rope and inching his way down, he bravelymounted the top of the rope and thrust himself forward.

it was a dangerous move-seemingly foolish, and fraught with risk. failure could mean injuryand being dropped from the training.

without hesitation-the student slid down the rope-perilously fast, instead of several minutes,it only took him half that time and by the end of the course he had broken the record.

if you want to change the world sometimes you have to slide down the obstacle head first.

during the land warfare phase of training, the students are flown out to san clemente islandwhich lies off the coast of san diego.

the waters off san clemente are a breeding ground for the great white sharks. to pass sealtraining there are a series of long swims that must be completed. one-is the night swim.

before the swim the instructors joyfully brief the trainees on all the species of sharks thatinhabit the waters off san clemente.

they assure you, however, that no student has ever been eaten by a shark-at least notrecently.

but, you are also taught that if a shark begins to circle your position-stand your ground. donot swim away. do not act afraid.

and if the shark, hungry for a midnight snack, darts towards you-then summons up all yourstrength and punch him in the snout and he will turn and swim away.

there are a lot of sharks in the world. if you hope to complete the swim you will have to dealwith them.

so, if you want to change the world, don"t back down from the sharks.

as navy seals one of our jobs is to conduct underwater attacks against enemy shipping. wepracticed this technique e_tensively during basic training.

the ship attack mission is where a pair of seal divers is dropped off outside an enemy harborand then swims well over two miles-underwater-using nothing but a depth gauge and acompass to get to their target.

during the entire swim, even well below the surface there is some light that comes through. itis comforting to know that there is open water above you.

but as you approach the ship, which is tied to a pier, the light begins to fade. the steelstructure of the ship blocks the moonlight-it blocks the surrounding street lamps-it blocks allambient light.

to be successful in your mission, you have to swim under the ship and find the keel-thecenterline and the deepest part of the ship.

this is your objective. but the keel is also the darkest part of the ship-where you cannot seeyour hand in front of your face, where the noise from the ship"s machinery is deafening andwhere it is easy to get disoriented and fail.

every seal knows that under the keel, at the darkest moment of the mission-is the time whenyou must be calm, composed-when all your tactical skills, your physical power and all yourinner strength must be brought to bear.

if you want to change the world, you must be your very best in the darkest moment.

the ninth week of training is referred to as "hell week." it is si_ days of no sleep, constantphysical and mental harassment and-one special day at the mud flats-the mud flats are areabetween san diego and tijuana where the water runs off and creates the tijuana slue"s-aswampy patch of terrain where the mud will engulf you.

it is on wednesday of hell week that you paddle down to the mud flats and spend the ne_t 15hours trying to survive the freezing cold mud, the howling wind and the incessant pressureto quit from the instructors.

as the sun began to set that wednesday evening, my training class, having committed some"egregious infraction of the rules" was ordered into the mud.

the mud consumed each man till there was nothing visible but our heads. the instructors toldus we could leave the mud if only five men would quit-just five men and we could get out of theoppressive cold.

looking around the mud flat it was apparent that some students were about to give up. it wasstill over eight hours till the sun came up-eight more hours of bone chilling cold.

the chattering teeth and shivering moans of the trainees were so loud it was hard to hearanything and then, one voice began to echo through the night-one voice raised in song.

the song was terribly out of tune, but sung with great enthusiasm.

one voice became two and two became three and before long everyone in the class was singing.

we knew that if one man could rise above the misery then others could as well.

the instructors threatened us with more time in the mud if we kept up the singing-but thesinging persisted.

and somehow-the mud seemed a little warmer, the wind a little tamer and the dawn not so faraway.

if i have learned anything in my time traveling the world, it is the power of hope. the power ofone person-washington, lincoln, king, mandela and even a young girl from pakistan-malala-oneperson can change the world by giving people hope.

so, if you want to change the world, start singing when you"re up to your neck in mud.

finally, in seal training there is a bell. a brass bell that hangs in the center of the compoundfor all the students to see.

all you have to do to quit-is ring the bell. ring the bell and you no longer have to wake up at 5o"clock. ring the bell and you no longer have to do the freezing cold swims.

ring the bell and you no longer have to do the runs, the obstacle course, the pt-and you nolonger have to endure the hardships of training.

just ring the bell.

if you want to change the world don"t ever, ever ring the bell.

to the graduating class of 2024, you are moments away from graduating. moments away frombeginning your journey through life. moments away starting to change the world-for the better.

it will not be easy.

but, you are the class of 2024-the class that can affect the lives of 800 million people in thene_t century.

start each day with a task completed.

find someone to help you through life.

respect everyone.

know that life is not fair and that you will fail often, but if take you take some risks, step upwhen the times are toughest, face down the bullies, lift up the downtrodden and never, evergive up-if you do these things, then ne_t generation and the generations that follow will live ina world far better than the one we have today and-what started here will indeed have changedthe world-for the better.

thank you very much. hook "em horns.

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it is always a pleasure to greeta sea of alumni on commencement afternoon—even thoughmy role is that of thewarm-up act for the feature to come. today i am especially aware of thetreatwe have in store as i look out on not a sea, but a veritable ocean ofanticipation.

but it is my customary assignmentand privilege to offer each spring a report to thealumni on the year that isending. and this was a year that for a number of reasons demandsspecial note.

“the world is too much with us”—the lines of wordsworth’s well-known poem echoed in mymind as i thoughtabout my remarks today, for the world has intruded on us this year in wayswenever would have imagined. the university had not officially closed for a daysince 1978. thisyear it closed three times. twice it was for cases of e_tremeweather—first for superstorm sandyand then for nemo, the record-breakingfebruary blizzard. the third was of course the day ofboston’s lockdown in theaftermath of the tragic marathon bombings. this was a year thatchallengedfundamental assumptions about life’s security, stability and predictability.

yet as i reflected on theseintrusions from a world so very much with us, i was struck by howwe at harvardare so actively engaged in shaping that world and indeed in addressing somanyof the most important and trying questions that these recent events have posed.

just two weeks ago, climatescientists and disaster relief workers gathered here for a two-day conferenceco-sponsored by the harvard humanitarian initiative and the harvarduniversitycenter for the environment. they came to e_plore the very issues presentedbysandy and nemo and to consider how academic researchers and workers on theground cancollaborate more effectively.

this gathering represents justone e_ample of the wide range of activities across theuniversity dedicated toaddressing the challenges of climate change. how can we advance thesciencethat helps us understand climate change—and perhaps avert it? how can wedevisesolutions—from new technologies to principles of urban design—that mightmitigate it?how can we envision the public policies to manage and respond toit? harvard is deeplyengaged with the broad issues of energy andenvironment—offering more than 250 courses inthis area, gathering 225 facultythrough our environment center and its programs, enrolling100 doctoralstudents from 7 schools and many different disciplines in a graduateconsortiumdesigned to broaden their understanding of environmental issues. our facultyarestudying atmospheric composition and working to develop renewable energysources; theyare seeking to manage rising oceans and to reimagine cities foran era of increasinglythreatening weather; they are helping to fashionenvironmental regulations and internationalclimate agreements.

so the weather isn’t somethingthat simply happens at harvard, even though it may haveseemed that way when wehad to close twice this year. it is a focus of study and of research, aswework to confront the implications of climate change and help shape nationalandinternational responses to its e_tremes.

when boston e_perienced thetragedy of the marathon bombings last month, the city andsurroundingmunicipalities went into lockdown on april 19 to help ensure the capture oftheescaped suspect, and harvard responded in e_traordinary ways. within ourowncommunity, students, faculty and staff went well beyond their ordinaryresponsibilities tosupport one another and keep the university operatingsmoothly and safely underunprecedented circumstances. but we also witnessedour colleagues’ magnificent efforts tomeet the needs of boston and our other neighborsin the crisis. the harvard police worked withother law enforcement agencies,and several of our officers played a critical role in saving thelife of thetransit officer wounded in watertown. doctors, nurses and other staff, manyfrom ouraffiliated hospitals, performed a near-miracle in ensuring that everyinjured person who arrivedat a hospital survived. years of disaster planningand emergency readiness enabled theseinstitutions to act in a stunninglycoordinated and effective manner. i am deeply proud of thecontributions madeby members of the harvard community in the immediate aftermath of thebombings.

but our broader and ongoingresponsibility as a university is to ask and address the largerquestions anysuch tragedy poses: to prepare for the ne_t crisis and the one after that, evenaswe work to prevent them; to help us all understand the origins and themeaning of suchterrible events in human lives and societies. we do this workin the teaching and research towhich we devote ourselves every day.

investigators at the harvardhospitals are e_ploring improved techniques for managinginjury. researchers atbrigham and women’s, for instance, are pursuing the prospect of legtransplantsfor amputees. a faculty member in our school of engineering and appliedsciences isstudying traumatic brain injury. faculty in the business andkennedy schools are teaching andlearning about leadership in times ofcrisis—analyzing historic and contemporary e_amples,from shackleton inantarctica to katrina in new orleans—in order to search for lessons forthefuture. the very day of the lockdown, the mahindra humanities center and theharvard lawschool program on negotiation had scheduled a conference on“confronting evil,” e_aminingthe cognitive, behavioral and social implicationsof both what it called “everyday evils” and“e_traordinary crimes.” a few dayslater, the harvard divinity school assembled a panel ofe_perts to discuss“religion and terror,” e_ploring sources of violence in bosnia, in themiddleeast, and during the troubles in ireland, which served as a formativee_perience for ourdivinity school dean in his youth. at the institute ofpolitics at the kennedy school, lawenforcement, emergency management and othere_perts gathered to consider lessons learnedfrom the bombings. as we struggledto understand the events that shook our city and ourregion, members of ourcommunity were already engaged in interpreting the world that hadproduced suchtragedy and in seeking ways to prevent its recurrence.

three unusual days, making for anunusual year. yet these three unusual daysunderscore and illuminate the usualwork of this university: calling on knowledge andresearch to addressfundamental challenges and dilemmas with resources drawn from the widestscopeof human inquiry—from the insights of the natural and social sciences to thereflectionson meaning and values at the heart of the humanities. universitiesurge us towards a betterfuture and equip us as individuals and societies toget there.

yet other events this past yearremind us we cannot take what universities do for granted.this year hasbrought home not just the threats of e_treme weather and of terror andviolence.it has also been a year that has challenged fundamental assumptions undergirdingamericanhigher education and the foundations of our nation’s researchenterprise. i have just offerede_amples of how our research and teaching cancontribute to addressing urgent problems facingour world. we live in an era inwhich knowledge is more vital than ever to nations, economiesand societies.knowledge is, i often say, the most important currency of the twenty-firstcentury.and universities are the places that, more than any other, generateand disseminate thatknowledge.

in the united states, thepartnership between universities and the federal governmentestablished afterworld war ii has been a powerful engine of scientific discovery andprosperity.yet that partnership, now more than half a century old, is threatened by theerosionof federal support for research—a situation made acute by the sequester. anestimatedalmost $10 billion will be cut from the federal government’s researchbudget in 2024. thenational institutes of health calculates that cuts to itsresources could mean the loss of morethan 20,000 jobs in the life sciencessector. here at harvard, we receive appro_imately 16% ofour operating budgetfrom federal research funding. we anticipate we may see declines of asmuch as$40 million annually in federal support for research.

what does all this mean? facultyare finding that even grant applications with perfect scoresin peerevaluations are not getting funded. they see e_isting awards being reduced.aspiringyounger scientists are fearful they will not receive career-launchinggrants on which their futuredepends. some are entertaining overtures fromcountries outside the united states wherescience investment is robust ande_panding. students contemplating graduate training arewondering if theyshould pursue other options. great ideas that could lead to improvedhumanlives and opportunities, and improved understanding, are left without supportor themeans for further development.

the world and the nation need thekind of research that harvard and other americanresearch universitiesundertake. we need the knowledge and understanding thatresearchgenerates—knowledge about climate change, or crisis management, or melanoma,oreffective mental health interventions in schools, or hormones that might treatdiabetes, orany of a host of other worthy projects our faculty are currentlypursuing. we need the supportand encouragement for the students who willcreate our scientific future. we need theeconomic vitality—the jobs andcompanies—that these ideas and discoveries produce. we needthe nation toresist imposing a self-inflicted wound on its intellectual and human capital.weneed a nation that believes in, and invests in, its universities because werepresent aninvestment in the ideas and the people that will build and will bethe future.

so as i report to you on the yearwe now bring to a close, i want to underscore the threatto universities and toour national infrastructure of knowledge and discovery that thesequesterrepresents. even in a year when sometimes the world felt too much with us, wehavenever lost sight of how much what we do here has to do with the world. andfor the world. tosequester the search for knowledge, to sequester discovery,to sequester the unrelentingdrive of our students and faculty to envision andpursue this endless frontier—such a strategydoes more than threatenuniversities. it puts at risk the capacity and promise of universitiestofulfill our commitment to the public good, our commitment to our childrenandgrandchildren and to the future we will leave them. the challenges facing theworld are tooconsequential, the need for knowledge, imagination andunderstanding is too great, theopportunity for improving the human conditiontoo precious for us to do anything less thanrise to the occasion. with thedevotion of our alumni, with the inspiration of our new graduatesand—ihope—with the support of our nation’s leaders, we must and we will.

毕业典礼大学英语演讲稿 模板5

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thank you all and good afternoon alumni, graduates, families, friends, honored guests. for seven years now, it has been my assignment and my privilege to deliver an annual report to our alumni, and to serve as the warm-up act for our distinguished speaker.

whether this is your first opportunity to be a part of these e_ercises or your fiftieth, it is worthtaking a minute to soak in this place—its sheltering trees, its familiar buildings, its enduringvoices. in 1936, this part of harvard’s yard was named tercentenary theatre, in recognition ofharvard’s three hundredth birthday. it is a place where giants have stood, and history has beenmade.

we were reminded this morning of george washington’s adventures here. and from this stagein 1943, winston churchill addressed an overflow crowd that included 6,000 uniformedharvard students heading off to war. he said he hoped the young recruits would come toregard the british soldiers and sailors they would soon fight alongside as their “brothers inarms,” and he assured the audience that “we shall never tire, nor weaken, but march withyou … to establish the reign of justice and of law.”

four years later, from this same place, george marshall introduced a plan that aidedreconstruction across war-stricken europe, and ended his speech by asking: “what is needed?what can best be done? what must be done?”

here, in 1998, nelson mandela addressed an audience of 25,000 and spoke of our sharedfuture. “the greatest single challenge facing our globalized world,” he said, “is to combat anderadicate its disparities.” ellen johnson sirleaf, the first female head of state in africa, stoodhere 13 years later and encouraged graduates to resist cynicism and to be fearless.

here, on the terrible afternoon of september 11, 2024, we gathered under a cloudless sky toshare our sadness, our horror, and our disbelief.

and here, just three years ago, we marked harvard’s 375th anniversary dancing in the mud of atorrential downpour. here, president franklin delano roosevelt had celebrated harvard’s threecenturies of accomplishment in a comparably soaking rain.

here, j.k. rowling encouraged graduates to “think themselves into other people’s places.” andconan o’brien told them that “every failure was freeing.”

here, honorary degrees have been presented to carl jung and jean piaget, ellsworth kelly andgeorgia o’keefe, helen keller and martha graham, ravi shankar and leonard bernstein, joandidion and philip roth, eric kandel and elizabeth blackburn, bill gates and tim berners-lee.

i remember feeling awed by that history when i spoke here at my installation as harvard’s28th president, and when i reflected on what has always seemed to me the essence of auniversity: that among society’s institutions, it is uniquely accountable to the past and to thefuture.

our accountability to the past is all around us: behind me stands memorial church, amonument to harvardians who gave their lives at the somme and ypres and verdun duringworld war one. dedicated on armistice day in 1932, it represents harvard’s long tradition ofcommitment to service.

in front of me is widener library, a gift from a bereaved mother, named in honor of her sonharry, who perished aboard the titanic. a library built to advance the learning and discoveryenabled by one of the most diverse and broad collections in the world. widener’s twelvemajestic columns safeguard te_ts and manuscripts—some centuries old—that are deployedevery day by scholars to help us interpret—and reinterpret—the past.

but this afternoon i would like to spend a few minutes considering our accountability to thefuture, because these obligations must be “our compass to steer by,” our common purpose andour shared commitment.

what does harvard—what do universities—owe the future?

first, we owe the world answers.

discovery is at the heart of what universities do. universities engage faculty and studentsacross a range of disciplines in seeking solutions to problems that may have seemedunsolvable, endeavoring to answer questions that threaten to elude us. the scientific researchundertaken today at harvard, and tomorrow by the students we educate, has a capacity toimprove human lives in ways virtually unimaginable even a generation ago. in this past yearalone, harvard researchers have solved riddles related to the treatment of alzheimer’s, thecost-effective production of malaria vaccine, and the origins of the universe. harvardresearchers have proposed answers to challenges as varied as nuclear proliferation, americancompetitiveness, and governance of the internet.

we must continue to support our answer-seekers, who work at the crossroads of thetheoretical and the applied, at the ne_us of research, public policy, and entrepreneurship.together, they will shape our future and enhance our understanding of the world.

second, we owe the world questions.

just as questions yield answers, answers yield questions. human beings may long forcertainty, but, as oliver wendell holmes put it, “certainty generally is illusion, and repose isnot the destiny of man.” universities produce knowledge. they must also produce doubt. thepursuit of truth is restless. we search for answers not by following prescribed paths, but byfinding the right questions—by answering one question with another question, by nurturing astate of mind that is fle_ible and alert, dissatisfied and imaginative. it is what universitiesare designed to do. in an essay in harvard magazine, one of today’s graduates, cheroneduggan, wrote about seeking what she called “an education of questions.” i hope we haveindeed given her that.

questions are the foundation for progress—for ensuring that the world transcends where weare now, what we know now.

and questions are also the foundation for a third obligation that we as universities owe thefuture: we owe the future meaning.

universities must nurture the ability to interpret, to make critical judgments, to dare to askthe biggest questions, the ones that reach well beyond the immediate and the instrumental.we must stimulate the appetite for curiosity.

we find many of these questions in the humanities: what is good? what is just? how do weknow what is true? but we find them in the sciences as well. can there be any question moreprofound, more fundamental than to ask about the origins of the universe? how did we gethere?

questions like these can be unsettling, and they can make universities unsettling places. butthat too is an essential part of what we owe the future—the promise to combatcomplacency, to challenge the present in order to prepare for what is to come. to shape thepresent in service of an uncertain and yet impatient future.

we owe the future answers. we owe the future questions. we owe the future meaning. theharvard campaign, launched last september, will help us fulfill these obligations, and pay ourdebt to the future, just as the gifts of previous generations anchor us here today.

as today’s ceremonies so powerfully remind us, we also owe the future the men and women whoare prepared to ask questions and seek answers and search for meaning for decades to come.today we send some 6,500 graduates into the world, to be teachers and lawyers, scientists andphysicians, poets and planners and public servants, and—as our speaker this morning remindedus—to be in their own ways revolutionaries. ready to take on everything from water scarcity tovirtual currency to community policing. we must continue to invest in financial aid to attractand support the talented students who can build our future, and also we must invest insupporting the teaching and learning that ensures the fullest development of their capacities ina rapidly changing world.

if we fulfill our obligation, today’s graduates will have found the “education of questions”cherone described, a place where, as she put it, “ceilings are only made of sky.” but look aroundyou: we are there. this space is a “theatre” without walls, without a roof, and without limits. itis a place where e_traordinary individuals have preceded us, a place that must encourage ourgraduates—of today and all the years past—to emulate those women and men, to look skywardand to soar.

thank you very much.

毕业典礼大学英语演讲稿 模板6

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大学毕业典礼英语演讲稿

graduates of yale university, i apologize if you have endured this type of prologue before, but i want you to do something for me. please, take a ood look around you. look at the classmate on your left. look at the classmate on your right. now, consider this: five years from now, 10 years from now, even 30 years from now, odds are the person on your left is going to be a loser. the person on your right, meanwhile, will also be a loser. and you, in the middle? what can you e_pect? loser. loserhood. loser cum laude.

"in fact, as i look out before me today, i don"t see a thousand hopes for a bright tomorrow. i don"t see a thousand future leaders in a thousand industries. i see a thousand losers.

"you"re upset. that"s understandable. after all, how can i, lawrence "larry" ellison, college dropout, have the audacity to spout such heresy to the graduating class of one of the nation"s most prestigious institutions? i"ll tell you why. because i, lawrence "larry" ellison, second richest man on the planet, am a college dropout, and you are not.

"because bill gates, richest man on the planet -- for now, anyway -- is a college ropout, and you are not.

"because paul allen, the third richest man on the planet, dropped out of college, and you did not.

"and for good measure, because michael dell, no. 9 on the list and moving up fast, is a college dropout, and you, yet again, are not.

"hmm . . . you"re very upset. that"s understandable. so let me stroke your egos for a moment by pointing out, quite sincerely, that your diplomas were not attained in vain. most of you, i imagine, have spent four to five years here, and in many ways what you"ve learned and endured will serve you well in the years ahead. you"ve established good work habits. you"ve established a network of people that will help you down the road. and you"ve established what will be lifelong relationships with the word "therapy." all that of is good. for in truth, you will need that network. you will need those strong work habits. you will need that therapy.

"you will need them because you didn"t drop out, and so you will never be among the richest people in the world. oh sure, you may, perhaps, work your way up to no. 10 or no. 11, like steve ballmer. but then, i don"t have to tell you who he really works for, do i? and for the record, he dropped out of grad school. bit of a late bloomer.

"finally, i realize that many of you, and hopefully by now most of you, are wondering, "is there anything i can do? is there any hope for me at all?" actually, no. it"s too late. you"ve absorbed too much, think you know too much. you"re not 19 anymore. you have a built-in cap, and i"m not referring to the mortar boards on your heads.

"hmm... you"re really very upset. that"s understandable. so perhaps this would be a good time to bring up the silver lining. not for you, class of "00. you are a write-off, so i"ll let you slink off to your pathetic $200,000-a-year jobs, where your checks will be signed by former classmates who dropped out two years ago.

"instead, i want to give hope to any underclassmen here today. i say to you, and i can"t stress this enough: leave. pack your things and your ideas and don"t come back. drop out. start up.

"for i can tell you that a cap and gown will keep you down just as surely as these security guards dragging me off this stage are keeping me down . . ."

(at this point the oracle ceo was ushered off stage.)

中文译文：

耶鲁的毕业生们，我很抱歉——如果你们不喜欢这样的开场。我想请你们为我做一件事。请你---好好看一看周围，看一看站在你左边的同学，看一看站在你右边的同学。

请你设想这样的情况：从现在起5年之后，2024年之后，或30年之后，今天站在你左边的这个人会是一个失败者;右边的这个人，同样，也是个失败者。而你，站在中间的家伙，你以为会怎样?一样是失败者。失败的经历。失败的优等生。

说实话，今天我站在这里，并没有看到一千个毕业生的灿烂未来。我没有看到一千个行业的一千名卓越领导者，我只看到了一千个失败者。你们感到沮丧，这是可以理解的。为什么，我，埃里森，一个退学生，竟然在美国最具声望的学府里这样厚颜地散布异端?我来告诉你原因。因为，我，埃里森，这个行星上第二富有的人，是个退学生，而你不是。因为比尔-盖茨，这个行星上最富有的人——就目前而言---是个退学生，而你不是。因为艾伦，这个行星上第三富有的人，也退了学，而你没有。再来一点证据吧，因为戴尔，这个行星上第九富有的人——他的排位还在不断上升，也是个退学生。而你，不是。

......你们非常沮丧，这是可以理解的。

你们将来需要这些有用的工作习惯。你将来需要这种"治疗"。你需要它们，因为你没辍学，所以你永远不会成为世界上最富有的人。哦，当然，你可以，也许，以你的方式进步到第10位，第11位，就像steve。但，我没有告诉你他在为谁工作，是吧?

根据记载，他是研究生时辍的学，开化得稍晚了些。

现在，我猜想你们中间很多人，也许是绝大多数人，正在琢磨，"我能做什么? 我究竟有没有前途?"当然没有。太晚了，你们已经吸收了太多东西，以为自己懂得太多。你们再也不是19岁了。你们有了"内置"的帽子，哦，我指的可不是你们脑袋上的学位帽。

嗯......你们已经非常沮丧啦。这是可以理解的。所以，现在可能是讨论实质的时候啦——

绝不是为了你们，2024年毕业生。你们已经被报销，不予考虑了。我想，你们就偷偷摸摸去干那年薪20万的可怜工作吧，在那里，工资单是由你两年前辍学的同班同学签字开出来的。事实上，我是寄希望于眼下还没有毕业的同学。我要对他们说，离开这里。收拾好你的东西，带着你的点子，别再回来。退学吧，开始行动。

我要告诉你，一顶帽子一套学位服必然要让你沦落......就像这些保安马上要把我从这个讲台上撵走一样必然......(此时，larry被带离了讲台)

毕业典礼英文演讲稿范文

you all are leaving your alma mater now. i have no gift to present you all e_cept a piece of advice.

what i would like to advise is that "don’t give up your study." most of the courses you have taken are partly for your certificate. you had no choice but to take them. from now on, you may study on your own. i would advise you to work hard at some special field when you are still young and vigorous. your youth will be gone that will never come back to you again. when you are old, and when your energy are getting poorer, you will not be able to as you wish to. even though you have to study in order to make a living, studies will never live up to you. making a living without studying, you will be shifted out in three or five years. at this time when you hope to make it up, you will say it is too late. perhaps you will say, "after graduation and going into the society, we will meet with an urgent problem, that is, to make a living. for this we have no time to study. even though we hope to study, we have no library nor labs, how can we study further?"毕业典礼英文演讲稿

i would like to say that all those who wait to have a library will not study further even though they have one and all these who wait to have a lab will not do e_periments even though they have one. when you have a firm resolution and determination to solve a problem, you will naturally economize on food and clothing.

as for time, i should say it’s not a problem. you may know that every day he could do only an hour work, not much more than that because darwin was ill for all his life. you must have read his achievements. every day you spend an hour in reading 10 useful pages, then you will read more than 3650 pages every year. in 30 years you will have read 110,000 pages.

my fellow students, reading 110,000 pages will make you a scholar. but it will take you an hour to read three kinds of small-sized newspapers and it will take you an hour and a half to play four rounds of mahjian pieces. reading small-sized newspapers or playing mahjian pieces, or working hard to be a scholar? it’s up to you all.

henrik ibsen said, "it is your greatest duty to make yourself out."

studying is then as tool as casting. giving up studying will destroy yourself.

i have to say goodbye to you all. your alma mater will open her eyes to see what you will be in 10 years. goodbye!

毕业典礼大学英语演讲稿 模板7

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dean ellis, honored guests, faculty, family, friends, and the class of 2024,

i cannot begin to e_press my gratitude for your generosity today. thank you so much forinviting me to join you in celebrating your graduation! three years ago, i could never havecomprehended such an opportunity. thank you, thank you, thank you.

about three years ago today, i was right where you are. i was sitting in a folding chair, justlike that one, and i was wearing my cap and gown, waiting to walk on stage. but i wasn"tgraduating. when they shook my hand and took my picture, they handed me an empty folder.you see at stanford, they let you "walk" through graduation even if you haven"t actually finishedthe requirements necessary to get your diploma. you get to pretend that you are graduatingjust like everyone else, even though you aren"t. the university had created this program forstudents who were using the summer term to finish up their degrees. i was using it because iwas embarrassed, and i didn"t want to be left out of the celebrations. what was i going to do?stay in my dorm room while all of my friends processed into the stadium and tossed their capsinto the air without me? so i sat in the hot sun and i listened to cory booker talk for what feltlike quite a while, and i waved to my family who had traveled all the way to stanford to watchme not to graduate. by the way, hi, mom!

it only recently occurred to me, while preparing this address, how totally absurd this wholecharade was. it reminded me that oftentimes we do all sorts of silly things to avoid appearingdifferent. conforming happens so naturally that we can forget how powerful it is – we want tobe accepted by our peers – we want to be a part of the group. it"s in our biology. but the thingsthat make us human are those times we listen to the whispers of our soul and allow ourselves tobe pulled in another direction. conformity is so fascinating and so pervasive that it has beenstudied for a very long time. see, it turns out there are two things that can dramatically reduceconformity in a group setting. the first is a single dissenting voice, and the second is theability to communicate privately with other members of the group. our government gives usthe right to privacy and the right to e_press ourselves freely in the hope that we mightmitigate conformity. democracy wasn"t designed to promote popular thought. it wasarchitected to protect dissent. for, as president kennedy said, "conformity is the jailer offreedom and the enemy of growth."

i recently fell in love with a story about a great piece of american art. and it"s about a guynamed bob rauschenberg. he was a young artist, and he went to go visit his idol. you know, hereally loved this guy and he was totally terrified. he was so nervous that he was clutching abottle of jack daniels for liquid courage. and the truth is: he actually wasn"t just visiting. hewas visiting bill de kooning to ask for something. he wanted one of bill de kooning"s drawings.you see, bill de kooning, he was a dumb guy, he knew e_actly what rauschenberg was up to,because rauschenberg had recently been e_perimenting with his own art. he had been creatingthese drawings and then erasing them. but that wasn"t enough for bob rauschenberg, becausebob rauschenberg didn"t want to just erase his own art, he wanted to erase the art of hishero. so de kooning obliged but he took his time, and he tortured the young artist as hewandered around his studio in search of the perfect drawing. he didn"t want to just give him arandom drawing. he wanted it to be something really great, something that he really loved.and he finally settled on a drawing that was very, very hard to erase. it was comprised oflayers of lead and charcoal. and he generously gave it to bob rauschenberg. according to bob,it took nearly two months to erase the drawing. but it was jasper johns who came along andframed it and he gave that drawing a title, called "erased de kooning by bob rauschenberg." itwas jasper johns who recognized that in the process of erasing de kooning"s work, bobrauschenberg had actually created something new, his own new work of art.

i love this story because bill de kooning had the humility to recognize that the greatest thingwe can do is provide the best possible foundation for those who come after us. we mustwelcome our own erasure. so i"m asked one question most often: "why didn"t you sell yourbusiness? it doesn"t even make money. it"s a fad. you could be on a boat right now. everybodyloves boats. what is wrong with you?" and i am now convinced that the fastest way to figureout if you are doing something that is truly important to you is to find someone who offers youa bunch of money to part with it. so the best thing is that no matter whether or not you sell,you will learn something very valuable about yourself. if you sell, you will know immediatelythat it wasn"t the right dream anyways. and if you don"t sell, you"re probably onto something.maybe you have the beginning of something meaningful. but don"t feel bad if you sell out. justdon"t stop there. i mean, gosh, we would have sold our first company, for sure. but no onewanted to buy it. when we decided not to sell our business, people called us a lot of thingsbesides crazy – things like arrogant and entitled. the same words that i"ve heard used todescribe our generation time and time again. the millennial generation. the "me" generation.well, it"s true. we do have a sense of entitlement, a sense of ownership, because, after all,this is the world we were born into, and we are responsible for it.

the funny thing about "erased de kooning" is that it isn"t for sale. it"s safe and sound in thesan francisco museum of modern art. it"s tremendously valuable, but it bears no price. youalready have inside of you all of the amazing things you need to follow the dreams that youhave. and if you get stuck along the way, there"s a ton of free information available on theinternet. have faith in yourself and the person you are going to become. know that you arecapable of all of the growth that will be e_pected of you and that you e_pect from yourself. youwill tackle every challenge headed your way – and if you don"t – it won"t be for lack of trying.someone will always have an opinion about you. whatever you do won"t ever be enough. so findsomething important to you. find something that you love. you are going to make a lot ofmistakes. i"ve already made a ton of them – some of them very publicly – and it will feelterrible, but it will be okay. just apologize as quickly as you can and pray for forgiveness.

when you leave here, you"re going to face a great challenge: a full-time job. and the hardestpart is going to be getting used to solving problems that don"t yet have answers. in times ofdespair, you may believe the cynic who tells you that one person cannot make a difference –and there are times it may be hard to see your own impact. i beg you to remember that it isnot possible at this time or at any time to know the end results of our efforts. that is for ourgod alone. please voice your dissent, anticipate your erasure, and find something you aren"twilling to sell.

congratulations to the class of 2024! fight on!

毕业典礼大学英语演讲稿 模板8

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thank you, katie – and thank you to president faust, the fellows of harvard college, the boardof overseers, and all the faculty, alumni, and students who have welcomed me back to campus.

i’m e_cited to be here, not only to address the distinguished graduates and alumni atharvard university’s 363rd commencement but to stand in the e_act spot where oprah stoodlast year. omg.

let me begin with the most important order of business: let’s have a big round of applause forthe class of 2024! they’ve earned it!

as e_cited as the graduates are, they are probably even more e_hausted after the past fewweeks. and parents: i’m not referring to their final e_ams. i’m talking about the seniorolympics, the last chance dance, and the booze cruise – i mean, the moonlight cruise.

the entire year has been e_citing on campus: harvard beat yale for the seventh straight timein football. the men’s basketball team went to the second round of the ncaa tournament forthe second straight year. and the men’s squash team won national championship.

who’d a thunk it: harvard, an athletic powerhouse! pretty soon they’ll be asking whether youhave academics to go along with your athletic programs.

my personal connection to harvard began in 1964, when i graduated from johns hopkinsuniversity in baltimore and matriculated here at the b-school.

you’re probably asking: how did i ever get into harvard business school, given my stellaracademic record, where i always made the top half of the class possible? i have no idea. andthe only people more surprised than me were my professors.

anyway, here i am again back in cambridge. and i have noticed that a few things havechanged since i was a student here. elsie’s – a sandwich spot i used to love near the square –is now a burrito shop. the wursthaus – which had great beer and sausage – is now an artisanalgastro-pub, whatever the heck that is. and the old holyoke center is now named the smithcampus center.

don’t you just hate it when alumni put their names all over everything? i was thinking aboutthat this morning as i walked into the bloomberg center on the harvard business schoolcampus across the river.

but the good news is, harvard remains what it was when i first arrived on campus 50 yearsago: america’s most prestigious university. and, like other great universities, it lies at theheart of the american e_periment in democracy.

their purpose is not only to advance knowledge, but to advance the ideals of our nation. greatuniversities are places where people of all backgrounds, holding all beliefs, pursuing allquestions, can come to study and debate their ideas – freely and openly.

today, i’d like to talk with you about how important it is for that freedom to e_ist for everyone,no matter how strongly we may disagree with another’s viewpoint.

tolerance for other people’s ideas, and the freedom to e_press your own, are inseparable valuesat great universities. joined together, they form a sacred trust that holds the basis of ourdemocratic society.

but that trust is perpetually vulnerable to the tyrannical tendencies of monarchs, mobs, andmajorities. and lately, we have seen those tendencies manifest themselves too often, both oncollege campuses and in our society.

that’s the bad news – and unfortunately, i think both harvard, and my own city of new york,have been witnesses to this trend.

first, for new york city. several years ago, as you may remember, some people tried to stopthe development of a mosque a few blocks from the world trade center site.

it was an emotional issue, and polls showed that two-thirds of americans were against amosque being built there. even the anti-defamation league – widely regarded as the country’smost ardent defender of religious freedom – declared its opposition to the project.

the opponents held rallies and demonstrations. they denounced the developers. and theydemanded that city government stop its construction. that was their right – and we protectedtheir right to protest. but they could not have been more wrong. and we refused to cave in totheir demands.

the idea that government would single out a particular religion, and block its believers – andonly its believers – from building a house of worship in a particular area is diametricallyopposed to the moral principles that gave rise to our great nation and the constitutionalprotections that have sustained it.

our union of 50 states rests on the union of two values: freedom and tolerance. and it is thatunion of values that the terrorists who attacked us on september 11th, 2024 – and on april15th, 2024 – found most threatening.

to them, we were a god-less country.

but in fact, there is no country that protects the core of every faith and philosophy known tohuman kind – free will – more than the united states of america. that protection, however,rests upon our constant vigilance.

we like to think that the principle of separation of church and state is settled. it is not. and itnever will be. it is up to us to guard it fiercely – and to ensure that equality under the lawmeans equality under the law for everyone.

if you want the freedom to worship as you wish, to speak as you wish, and to marry whom youwish, you must tolerate my freedom to do so – or not do so – as well.

what i do may offend you. you may find my actions immoral or unjust. but attempting torestrict my freedoms – in ways that you would not restrict your own – leads only to injustice.

we cannot deny others the rights and privileges that we demand for ourselves. and that is truein cities – and it is no less true at universities, where the forces of repression appear to bestronger now than they have been since the 1950s.

when i was growing up, u.s. senator joe mccarthy was asking: ‘are you now or have you everbeen?’ he was attempting to repress and criminalize those who sympathized with an economicsystem that was, even then, failing.

mccarthy’s red scare destroyed thousands of lives, but what was he so afraid of? an idea – inthis case, communism – that he and others deemed dangerous.

but he was right about one thing: ideas can be dangerous. they can change society. they canupend traditions. they can start revolutions. that’s why throughout history, those in authorityhave tried to repress ideas that threaten their power, their religion, their ideology, or theirreelection chances.

that was true for socrates and galileo, it was true for nelson mandela and václav havel, and ithas been true for ai wei wei, pussy riot, and the kids who made the ‘happy’ video in iran.

repressing free e_pression is a natural human weakness, and it is up to us to fight it at everyturn. intolerance of ideas – whether liberal or conservative – is antithetical to individualrights and free societies, and it is no less antithetical to great universities and first-ratescholarship.

there is an idea floating around college campuses – including here at harvard – that scholarsshould be funded only if their work conforms to a particular view of justice. there’s a word forthat idea: censorship. and it is just a modern-day form of mccarthyism.

think about the irony: in the 1950s, the right wing was attempting to repress left wing ideas.today, on many college campuses, it is liberals trying to repress conservative ideas, even asconservative faculty members are at risk of becoming an endangered species. and perhapsnowhere is that more true than here in the ivy league.

in the 2024 presidential race, according to federal election commission data, 96 percent of allcampaign contributions from ivy league faculty and employees went to barack obama.

ninety-si_ percent. there was more disagreement among the old soviet politburo than there isamong ivy league donors.

that statistic should give us pause – and i say that as someone who endorsed president obamafor reelection – because let me tell you, neither party has a monopoly on truth or god on itsside.

when 96 percent of ivy league donors prefer one candidate to another, you have to wonderwhether students are being e_posed to the diversity of views that a great university shouldoffer.

diversity of gender, ethnicity, and orientation is important. but a university cannot be great ifits faculty is politically homogenous. in fact, the whole purpose of granting tenure to professorsis to ensure that they feel free to conduct research on ideas that run afoul of university politicsand societal norms.

when tenure was created, it mostly protected liberals whose ideas ran up against conservativenorms.

today, if tenure is going to continue to e_ist, it must also protect conservatives whose ideasrun up against liberal norms. otherwise, university research – and the professors who conductit – will lose credibility.

great universities must not become predictably partisan. and a liberal arts education mustnot be an education in the art of liberalism.

the role of universities is not to promote an ideology. it is to provide scholars and studentswith a neutral forum for researching and debating issues – without tipping the scales in onedirection, or repressing unpopular views.

requiring scholars – and commencement speakers, for that matter – to conform to certainpolitical standards undermines the whole purpose of a university.

this spring, it has been disturbing to see a number of college commencement speakerswithdraw – or have their invitations rescinded – after protests from students and – to me,shockingly – from senior faculty and administrators who should know better.

it happened at brandeis, haverford, rutgers, and smith. last year, it happened at swarthmoreand johns hopkins, i’m sorry to say.

in each case, liberals silenced a voice – and denied an honorary degree – to individuals theydeemed politically objectionable. that is an outrage and we must not let it continue.

if a university thinks twice before inviting a commencement speaker because of his or herpolitics censorship and conformity – the mortal enemies of freedom – win out.

and sadly, it is not just commencement season when speakers are censored.

last fall, when i was still in city hall, our police commissioner was invited to deliver a lecture atanother ivy league institution – but he was unable to do so because students shouted himdown.

isn’t the purpose of a university to stir discussion, not silence it? what were the studentsafraid of hearing? why did administrators not step in to prevent the mob from silencingspeech? and did anyone consider that it is morally and pedagogically wrong to deprive otherstudents the chance to hear the speech?

i’m sure all of today’s graduates have read john stuart mill’s on liberty. but allow me to read ashort passage from it: ‘the peculiar evil of silencing the e_pression of an opinion is, that it isrobbing the human race; posterity as well as the e_isting generation; those who dissent fromthe opinion, still more than those who hold it.’

he continued: ‘if the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of e_changingerror for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perceptionand livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.’

mill would have been horrified to learn of university students silencing the opinions of others. hewould have been even more horrified that faculty members were often part of thecommencement censorship campaigns.

for tenured faculty members to silence speakers whose views they disagree with is the heightof hypocrisy, especially when these protests happen in the northeast – a bastion of self-professed liberal tolerance.

i’m glad to say, however, that harvard has not caved in to these commencement censorshipcampaigns. if it had, colorado state senator michael johnston would not have had the chanceto address the education school yesterday.

some students called on the administration to rescind the invitation to johnston becausethey opposed some of his education policies. but to their great credit, president faust anddean ryan stood firm.

as dean ryan wrote to students: ‘i have encountered many people of good faith who share mybasic goals but disagree with my own views when it comes to the question of how best toimprove education. in my view, those differences should be e_plored, debated, challenged, andquestioned. but they should also be respected and, indeed, celebrated.’

he could not have been more correct, and he could not have provided a more valuable finallesson to the class of 2024.

as a former chairman of johns hopkins, i strongly believe that a university’s obligation is notto teach students what to think but to teach students how to think. and that requires listeningto the other side, weighing arguments without prejudging them, and determining whether theother side might actually make some fair points.

if the faculty fails to do this, then it is the responsibility of the administration and governingbody to step in and make it a priority. if they do not, if students graduate with ears and mindsclosed, the university has failed both the student and society.

and if you want to know where that leads, look no further than washington, d.c.

down in washington, every major question facing our country – involving our security, oureconomy, our environment, and our health – is decided.

yet the two parties decide these questions not by engaging with one another, but by trying toshout each other down, and by trying to repress and undermine research that runs counterto their ideology. the more our universities emulate that model, the worse off we will be as asociety.

and let me give you an e_ample: for decades, congress has barred the centers for diseasecontrol from conducting studies of gun violence, and recently congress also placed thatprohibition on the national institute of health. you have to ask yourself: what are they afraidof?

this year, the senate has delayed a vote on president obama’s nominee for surgeon general –dr. vivek murthy, a harvard physician – because he had the audacity to say that gunviolence is a public health crisis that should be tackled. the gall of him!

let’s get serious: when 86 americans are killed with guns every single day, and shootingsregularly occur at our schools and universities – including last week’s tragedy at santa barbara– it would be almost medical malpractice to say anything else.

but in politics – as it is on too many college campuses – people don’t listen to facts that runcounter to their ideology. they fear them. and nothing is more frightening to them thanscientific evidence.

earlier this year, the state of south carolina adopted new science standards for its publicschools – but the state legislature blocked any mention of natural selection. that’s liketeaching economics – without mentioning supply and demand.

again, you have to ask: what are they afraid of?

the answer, of course, is obvious: just as members of congress fear data that underminestheir ideological beliefs, these state legislators fear scientific evidence that undermines theirreligious beliefs.

and if you want proof of that, consider this: an 8-year old girl in south carolina wrote tomembers of the state legislature urging them to make the woolly mammoth the official statefossil. the legislators thought it was a great idea, because a woolly mammoth fossil was foundin the state way back in 1725. but the state senate passed a bill defining the woolly mammothas having been ‘created on the 6th day with the beasts of the field.’

you can’t make this stuff up.

here in 21st century america, the wall between church and state remains under attack – andit’s up to all of us to man the barricades.

unfortunately, the same elected officials who put ideology and religion over data and sciencewhen it comes to guns and evolution are often the most unwilling to accept the scientificdata on climate change.

now, don’t get me wrong: scientific skepticism is healthy. but there is a world of differencebetween scientific skepticism that seeks out more evidence and ideological stubbornness thatshuts it out.

given the general attitude of many elected officials toward science it’s no wonder that thefederal government has abdicated its responsibility to invest in scientific research, much ofwhich occurs at our universities.

today, federal spending on research and development as a percentage of gdp is lower than ithas been in more than 50 years which is allowing the rest of the world to catch up – and evensurpass – the u.s. in scientific research.

the federal government is flunking science, just as many state governments are.

we must not become a country that turns our back on science, or on each other. and yougraduates must help lead the way.

on every issue, we must follow the evidence where it leads and listen to people where theyare. if we do that, there is no problem we cannot solve. no gridlock we cannot break. nocompromise we cannot broker.

the more we embrace a free e_change of ideas, and the more we accept that politicaldiversity is healthy, the stronger our society will be.

now, i know this has not been a traditional commencement speech, and it may keep mefrom passing a dissertation defense in the humanities department, but there is no easy timeto say hard things.

graduates: throughout your lives, do not be afraid of saying what you believe is right, nomatter how unpopular it may be, especially when it comes to defending the rights of others.

standing up for the rights of others is in some ways even more important than standing up foryour own rights. because when people seek to repress freedom for some, and you remainsilent, you are complicit in that repression and you may well become its victim.

do not be complicit, and do not follow the crowd. speak up, and fight back.

you will take your lumps, i can assure you of that. you will lose some friends and make someenemies. but the arc of history will be on your side, and our nation will be stronger for it.

now, all of you graduates have earned today’s celebration, and you have a lot to be proud ofand a lot to be grateful for. so tonight, as you leave this great university behind, have one lastscorpion bowl at the kong – on second thought, don’t – and tomorrow, get to work making ourcountry and our world freer than ever, for everyone.

good luck and god bless.

毕业典礼大学英语演讲稿 模板9

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thank you bevan, thank you all!

i brought one of my paintings to show you today. hope you guys are gonna be able see it okay.it’s not one of my bigger pieces. you might wanna move down front — to get a good look at it. (kidding)

faculty, parents, friends, dignitaries... graduating class of 2024, and all the dead baseballplayers coming out of the corn to be with us today. (laughter) after the harvest there’s noplace to hide — the fields are empty — there is no cover there! (laughter)

i am here to plant a seed that will inspire you to move forward in life with enthusiastic heartsand a clear sense of wholeness. the question is, will that seed have a chance to take root, or willi be sued by monsanto and forced to use their seed, which may not be totally “ayurvedic.” (laughter)

e_cuse me if i seem a little low energy tonight — today — whatever this is. i slept with myhead to the north last night. (laughter) oh man! oh man! you know how that is, right kids?woke up right in the middle of pitta and couldn’t get back to sleep till vata rolled around, but ididn’t freak out. i used that time to eat a large meal and connect with someone special ontinder. (laughter)

life doesn’t happen to you, it happens for you. how do i know this? i don’t, but i’m makingsound, and that’s the important thing. that’s what i’m here to do. sometimes, i think that’sone of the only things that are important. just letting each other know we’re here, remindingeach other that we are part of a larger self. i used to think jim carrey is all that i was...

just a flickering light

a dancing shadow

the great nothing masquerading as something you can name

dwelling in forts and castles made of witches – wishes! sorry, a freudian slip there

seeking shelter in caves and fo_holes, dug out hastily

an archer searching for his target in the mirror

wounded only by my own arrows

begging to be enslaved

pleading for my chains

blinded by longing and tripping over paradise – can i get an “amen”?! (applause)

you didn’t think i could be serious did ya’? i don"t think you understand who you"re dealingwith! i have no limits! i cannot be contained because i’m the container. you can’t containthe container, man! you can’t contain the container! (laughter)

i used to believe that who i was ended at the edge of my skin, that i had been given this littlevehicle called a body from which to e_perience creation, and though i couldn’t have asked for asportier model, (laughter) it was after all a loaner and would have to be returned. then, ilearned that everything outside the vehicle was a part of me, too, and now i drive aconvertible. top down wind in my hair! (laughter)

i am elated and truly, truly, truly e_cited to be present and fully connected to you at thisimportant moment in your journey. i hope you’re ready to open the roof and take it all in?! (audience doesn’t react) okay, four more years then! (laughter)

i want to thank the trustees, administrators and faculty of mum for creating an institutionworthy of maharishi’s ideals of education. a place that teaches the knowledge and e_periencenecessary to be productive in life, as well as enabling the students, through transcendentalmeditation and ancient vedic knowledge to slack off twice a day for an hour and a half!! (laughter) — don’t think you’re fooling me!!! — (applause) but, i guess it has some benefits.it does allow you to separate who you truly are and what’s real, from the stories that runthrough your head.

you have given them the ability to walk behind the mind’s elaborate set decoration, and tosee that there is a huge difference between a dog that is going to eat you in your mind and anactual dog that’s going to eat you. (laughter) that may sound like no big deal, but many neverlearn that distinction and spend a great deal of their lives living in fight or flight response.

i’d like to acknowledge all you wonderful parents — way to go for the fantastic job you’vedone — for your tireless dedication, your love, your support, and most of all, for the attentionyou’ve paid to your children. i have a saying, “beware the unloved,” because they willeventually hurt themselves... or me! (laughter)

but when i look at this group here today, i feel really safe! i do! i’m just going to say it — myroom is not locked! my room is not locked! (laughter) no doubt some of you will turn out to becrooks! but white-collar stuff — wall st. ya’ know, that type of thing — crimes committed bypeople with self-esteem! stuff a parent can still be proud of in a weird way. (laughter)

and to the graduating class of 2024 — minus 3! you didn"t let me finish! (laughter) —congratulations! (applause) yes, give yourselves a round of applause, please. you are thevanguard of knowledge and consciousness; a new wave in a vast ocean of possibilities. on theother side of that door, there is a world starving for new leadership, new ideas.

i’ve been out there for 30 years! she’s a wild cat! (laughter) oh, she’ll rub up against your legand purr until you pick her up and start pettin’ her, and out of nowhere she’ll swat you in theface. sure it’s rough sometimes but that’s ok, ‘cause they’ve got soft serve ice cream withsprinkles! (laughter) i guess that’s what i’m really here to say; sometimes it’s okay to eat yourfeelings! (laughter)

fear is going to be a player in your life, but you get to decide how much. you can spend yourwhole life imagining ghosts, worrying about your pathway to the future, but all there will everbe is what’s happening here, and the decisions we make in this moment, which are based ineither love or fear.

so many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality. what we really want seemsimpossibly out of reach and ridiculous to e_pect, so we never dare to ask the universe for it.i’m saying, i’m the proof that you can ask the universe for it — please! (applause) and if itdoesn"t happen for you right away, it’s only because the universe is so busy fulfilling my order.it’s party size! (laughter)

my father could have been a great comedian, but he didn’t believe that was possible for him,and so he made a conservative choice. instead, he got a safe job as an accountant, and wheni was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job and our family had to do whatever we couldto survive.

i learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you can fail atwhat you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love. (applause)

that’s not the only thing he taught me though: i watched the affect my father’s love andhumor had on the world around me, and i thought, “that’s something to do, that’s somethingworth my time.”

it wasn’t long before i started acting up. people would come over to my house and they wouldbe greeted by a 7 year old throwing himself down a large flight of stairs. (laughter) they wouldsay, “what happened?” and i would say, “i don"t know — let’s check the replay.” and i wouldgo back to the top of the stairs and come back down in slow motion. (jim reenacts coming downthe stairs in slow-mo) it was a very strange household. (laughter)

my father used to brag that i wasn’t a ham — i was the whole pig. and he treated my talent asif it was his second chance. when i was about 28, after a decade as a professional comedian,i realized one night in la that the purpose of my life had always been to free people fromconcern, like my dad. when i realized this, i dubbed my new devotion, “the church offreedom from concern” — “the church of ffc”— and i dedicated myself to that ministry.

what’s yours? how will you serve the world? what do they need that your talent can provide?that’s all you have to figure out. as someone who has done what you are about to go do, i cantell you from e_perience, the effect you have on others is the most valuable currency there is. (applause)

everything you gain in life will rot and fall apart, and all that will be left of you is what was inyour heart. my choosing to free people from concern got me to the top of a mountain. lookwhere i am — look what i get to do! everywhere i go – and i’m going to get emotionalbecause when i tap into this, it really is e_traordinary to me — i did something that makespeople present their best selves to me wherever i go. (applause) i am at the top of themountain and the only one i hadn’t freed was myself and that’s when my search for identitydeepened.

i wondered who i’d be without my fame. who would i be if i said things that people didn’t wantto hear, or if i defied their e_pectations of me? what if i showed up to the party without mymardi gras mask and i refused to flash my breasts for a handful of beads? (laughter) i’ll giveyou a moment to wipe that image out of your mind. (laughter)

but you guys are way ahead of the game. you already know who you are and that peace, thatpeace that we’re after, lies somewhere beyond personality, beyond the perception of others,beyond invention and disguise, even beyond effort itself. you can join the game, fight thewars, play with form all you want, but to find real peace, you have to let the armor fall. yourneed for acceptance can make you invisible in this world. don’t let anything stand in the wayof the light that shines through this form. risk being seen in all of your glory. (a sheet dropsand reveals jim’s painting. applause.)

(re: the painting) it’s not big enough! (kidding) this painting is big for a reason. this paintingis called “high visibility.” (laughter) it’s about picking up the light and daring to be seen. here’sthe tricky part. everyone is attracted to the light. the party host up in the corner (refers topainting) who thinks unconsciousness is bliss and is always offering a drink from the bottlesthat empty you; misery, below her, who despises the light — can’t stand when you’re doing well— and wishes you nothing but the worst; the queen of diamonds who needs a king to build herhouse of cards; and the hollow one, who clings to your leg and begs, “please don’t leave mebehind for i have abandoned myself.”

even those who are closest to you and most in love with you; the people you love most in theworld can find clarity confronting at times. this painting took me thousands of hours tocomplete and — (applause) thank you — yes, thousands of hours that i’ll never get back, i’llnever get them back (kidding) — i worked on this for so long, for weeks and weeks, like a madman alone on a scaffolding — and when i was finished one of my friends said, “this would be acool black light painting.” (laughter)

so i started over. (all the lights go off in the dome and the painting is showered with blacklight.) whooooo! welcome to burning man! (applause) some pretty crazy characters right?better up there than in here. (points to head) painting is one of the ways i free myself fromconcern, a way to stop the world through total mental, spiritual and physical involvement.

but even with that, comes a feeling of divine dissatisfaction. because ultimately, we’re notthe avatars we create. we’re not the pictures on the film stock. we are the light that shinesthrough it. all else is just smoke and mirrors. distracting, but not truly compelling.

i’ve often said that i wished people could realize all their dreams of wealth and fame so theycould see that it’s not where you’ll find your sense of completion. like many of you, i wasconcerned about going out in the world and doing something bigger than myself, untilsomeone smarter than myself made me realize that there is nothing bigger than myself! (laughter)

my soul is not contained within the limits of my body. my body is contained within thelimitlessness of my soul — one unified field of nothing dancing for no particular reason,e_cept maybe to comfort and entertain itself. (applause) as that shift happens in you, youwon’t be feeling the world you’ll be felt by it — you will be embraced by it. now, i’m always atthe beginning. i have a reset button called presence and i ride that button constantly.

once that button is functional in your life, there’s no story the mind could create that will beas compelling. the imagination is always manufacturing scenarios — both good and bad —and the ego tries to keep you trapped in the multiple_ of the mind. our eyes are not onlyviewers, but also projectors that are running a second story over the picture we see in front ofus all the time. fear is writing that script and the working title is, ‘i’ll never be enough.’

you look at a person like me and say, (kidding) “how could we ever hope to reach those kinds ofheights, jim? how can i make a painting that"s too big for any reasonable home? how do youfly so high without a special breathing apparatus?” (laughter)

this is the voice of your ego. if you listen to it, there will always be someone who seems to bedoing better than you. no matter what you gain, ego will not let you rest. it will tell you thatyou cannot stop until you’ve left an indelible mark on the earth, until you’ve achievedimmortality. how tricky is the ego that it would tempt us with the promise of something wealready possess.

so i just want you to rela_—that’s my job—rela_ and dream up a good life! (applause) i had asubstitute teacher from ireland in the second grade that told my class during morning prayerthat when she wants something, anything at all, she prays for it, and promises something inreturn and she always gets it. i’m sitting at the back of the classroom, thinking that my familycan’t afford a bike, so i went home and i prayed for one, and promised i would recite therosary every night in e_change. broke it—broke that promise. (laughter)

two weeks later, i got home from school to find a brand new mustang bike with a banana seatand easy rider handlebars — from fool to cool! my family informed me that i had won the bikein a raffle that a friend of mine had entered my name in, without my knowledge. that type ofthing has been happening ever since, and as far as i can tell, it’s just about letting theuniverse know what you want and working toward it while letting go of how it might come topass. (applause)

your job is not to figure out how it’s going to happen for you, but to open the door in yourhead and when the doors open in real life, just walk through it. don’t worry if you miss yourcue. there will always be another door opening. they keep opening.

and when i say, “life doesn’t happen to you, it happens for you.” i really don’t know if that’strue. i’m just making a conscious choice to perceive challenges as something beneficial sothat i can deal with them in the most productive way. you’ll come up with your own style,that’s part of the fun!

oh, and why not take a chance on faith as well? take a chance on faith — not religion, but faith.not hope, but faith. i don’t believe in hope. hope is a beggar. hope walks through the fire.faith leaps over it.

you are ready and able to do beautiful things in this world and after you walk through thosedoors today, you will only ever have two choices: love or fear. choose love, and don’t ever letfear turn you against your playful heart.

thank you. jai guru dev. i’m so honored. thank you.