Commencement Speakers from the Mecca to the Lake Give Advice

Sharpening Your Saw: Body, Mind, Spirit, and Heart

The month of May buzzed with commencement ceremonies and celebrations from the Mecca to the Lake. The Mecca is Howard University in Washington, DC, where students gather and study in the yard or the valley and, are known as Bison. The Lake is SUNY Oswego in Oswego, New York, where students exercise and study on a lakeside campus, and are known as Lakers.

The 2019 graduates: David Simon, HU, and Rachael Batchelor, SUNY Oswego.

During the commencement speeches, speakers poured wisdom and lived experience into the minds of the graduates to encourage them for the next stage of life. Many graduates will move from campus life to the real world that requires maintaining a job to pay rent, eat, travel and live purposefully. Some will work full-time jobs for the first time in their life. Others will live in different states and meet new people. In Dr. Suess’ book Oh the Places You’ll Go, graduates will meet things that scare them right out their pants; things that will scare them so much they won’t want to go on.”

As I scribbled notes in the margins of the commencement program, I thought of Ecclesiastes 3:3b: “a time to break down, and a time to build up.”  I thought of changes. Breaking down old habits,  walls of silence, and stereotypes. Building up courage, new ideas, and resilience. When I reread my notes, I discovered a few building blocks to help sharpen your saw.

1. The gap in the U.S. has not been closed since the Civil Rights fight, so take time to change the gap and get educated in everything. Then educate others in finance, nutrition, education, and economics.
2. The more you know, the more you don’t know.
3. Look back and give to others.
4. Don’t let your physical capacity stop you.
5. Protect friendships. Check on others. Care about somebody else. Ask “How are you doing?” The HU commencement speaker, Kasim Reed, the former mayor of Atlanta, said he had a friend who said: “If you’re awake, I’m awake. If you’re not sleeping, I’m not sleeping, If you’re not okay, then I’m not okay. That’s caring and checking on somebody else.”
6. SUNY Oswego’s School of Business commencement speaker Jeff Ragovin, CGO of Social Native, shared the same sentiment. He suggested fostering and establishing relationships that will last a lifetime, get to know people in a special way, remembering it takes time to pay it forward.
7. Don’t compromise your values for any person.
8. Don’t be afraid to alter your course, i.e. your career.
9. Failures breed success.
10. If you are open to change, the change will happen.

In a nutshell, as you launch a new beginning be the curator of your life with values, a moral compass, a person who gives back and fosters authentic relationships. To move forward, you must be bold, mission-driven with service and teaching steeped in “grit, dreams, and perseverance.” And as you curate your life, another time will come when you have “to break down and a time to build up” all over again.