Great commencement speech, great message.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_lfxYhtf8o4

transcript
http://www.theswellesleyreport.com/2012/06/wellesley-high-grads-told-youre-not-special/

Quote :

"And your ceremonial costume… shapeless, uniform, one-size-fits-all. Whether male or female, tall or short, scholar or slacker, spray-tanned prom queen or intergalactic X-Box assassin, each of you is dressed, you’ll notice, exactly the same. And your diploma… but for your name, exactly the same. All of this is as it should be, because none of you is special. You are not special. You are not exceptional."

Quote :

"And now you’ve conquered high school… and, indisputably, here we all have gathered for you, the pride and joy of this fine community, the first to emerge from that magnificent new building… But do not get the idea you’re anything special. Because you’re not. The empirical evidence is everywhere, numbers even an English teacher can’t ignore. Across the country no fewer than 3.2 million seniors are graduating about now from more than 37,000 high schools. That’s 37,000 valedictorians… 37,000 class presidents… 92,000 harmonizing altos… 340,000 swaggering jocks… 2,185,967 pairs of Uggs. But why limit ourselves to high school? After all, you’re leaving it. So think about this: even if you’re one in a million, on a planet of 6.8 billion that means there are nearly 7,000 people just like you."

[Edited on June 12, 2012 at 2:18 PM. Reason : ]

6/12/2012 2:17:39 PM

I loved it.

6/12/2012 2:19:20 PM

i sent it to everyone I know that graduated this year from college/hs

6/12/2012 2:20:22 PM

A+


or A- since this thread is nothing special

6/12/2012 2:21:15 PM

makes me happy

6/12/2012 2:22:37 PM

I didn't click the link but someone makes this speech every year, it's not special.

6/12/2012 2:25:47 PM

+

6/12/2012 2:36:15 PM

I think my generation is fucked....primarily because we all grew up thinking we were special

tl;dr....i support this message

6/12/2012 2:37:01 PM

Quote :

"I didn't click the link but someone makes this speech every year, it's not special."

lol nice.

6/12/2012 3:09:55 PM

My friend had the link on her fb wall yesterday. I love speeches like this. There IS encouragement behind the criticism.

6/12/2012 3:35:28 PM

At my high school they had this thing at assemblies where the underclassmen stood up as the seniors came in. The rationale was "they worked so hard to get where they are so they deserve your respect".

[Edited on June 12, 2012 at 4:34 PM. Reason : just listened, good speech. ]

6/12/2012 4:14:15 PM

^Lol, that was so fucking dumb. Union Pines was a joke.

6/12/2012 4:40:53 PM

aha why does that not surprise me that was Union Pines. do they still do that?

6/12/2012 4:56:39 PM

I didn't go to Union Pines. I went to Western Harnett. No idea if they still do this.

6/12/2012 6:51:18 PM

heh, took a guess after a quick 'i remember having to do that crap" *clicks user info*

6/12/2012 7:37:40 PM

oh well.

6/12/2012 8:15:30 PM

I saw this on Sunday on yahoo...tww is falling behind

6/12/2012 8:20:09 PM