It’s graduation season again, and I watch the Clinton School of Public Service students cross the stage—brighter and more motivated than ever. I’m hopeful because I know (from the previous five years) the kinds of places they’re headed and how they will begin to make their patch of the world a better place. (And as a bonus, we got to watch our speaker, Rham Emanuel, impersonate his former boss, Bill Clinton.)
So I was also happy to see one of my favorite writers, Niel Gaiman, featured in Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings, giving the commencement address last year at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
“Nothing I did, where the only reason for doing it was the money, was ever worth it, except as bitter experience…. The things I did because I was excited and wanted to see them exist in reality have never let me down, and I never regretted the time I spent on any of them.”
If you’re still needing some inspiring words to help nudge you into the world, here are links to classic commencement speeches by Steve Jobs and J.K. Rowling.
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