My Commencement Speech

Just keep making stuff.

A couple of weeks ago, I did something I never imagined I would do, had never even considered the possibility of doing: I gave a commencement speech.

It wasn’t that big of a deal. I didn’t wear a robe or anything, and my primary attribute as a speaker was less my blinding insight and more my immediate availability. The person scheduled to give the commencement address had to cancel at the last minute, and the recipients of an MFA in narrative nonfiction and screenwriting from the Grady College of Mass Communication and Journalism at the University of Georgia had earned the right to have somebody speak to them. Enter: Me. I live nearby, I had nothing going on that Saturday, I can write a speech really fast if I have to and I am, on a good day, at least a slight improvement over an empty podium. They asked. I said yes. I am not difficult to persuade.

And thus there they were, watching me yammer.

As you can see, I wasn’t filling Sanford Stadium here. But these students worked hard for their degrees, and their families were all there to celebrate their achievement: It was an assignment to take seriously. The professor who asked me to speak told me that the students, more than anything else, were looking for something inspirational, for some encouragement that pursuing this degree was a…