An Open Letter to Graduates

Dear Graduates:

Congratulations!  What you have accomplished is reason to celebrate.  For the past 13 years you have participated in co-curricular activities, developed and deepened friendships, given much joy (and at times frustration) to your parents, and completed your school work (sometimes better than others, and some have worked harder than others).  You have fulfilled the requirements set forth by the school district of which you are now a graduate.  Congratulations!

For some of you a high school graduation will mark the completion of your formal education.  You will still be taught but just not in a formal academic setting.  You will be going on to the armed services of our country; taking more of a role in a family business; or perhaps straight into the work force.  Others will move on to more schooling.  For all, life will change.  People you have not met yet will become good friends.  You will lose touch with other people that you have known for most of your life. 

You will receive cards, and gifts, and lots of hugs.  One question you will be asked repeatedly is:  “What’s next for you?  What are going to do with your life?”  You might respond with summer plans or plans for next year.  I invite you to think about that question a bit deeper though. 

In 1992 Mary Oliver wrote a poem entitled “The Summer Day” which concludes with the phrase:  Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?  

Tony Deifell, an activist, a Harvard MBA, a photographer, a consultant, a teacher, and a leader of a non-profit organization uses that sentence as an introduction to a web-site he created (http://www.hbs.edu/PortraitProject/2002/DeifellTony.html).  In 1998 he fielded a variation of that question that he could not answer.  A child, who Tony had never met, called and insistently asked him:  “Why do you do what you do?”  

To this question, and to his own shock, Tony had no ready response.  That question got him thinking about his life and his purpose. So he’s invited other people to consider this question and to post their answers and their photos on a web-site. 

You probably have some ideas at this point as to what you plan to do with your one wild and precious life.  You might not be able to put it into a succinct phrase.  Or perhaps you can.  Don’t be surprised if what you plan to do now with your wild and precious life is different in a few years.  How I view my life now is very different than how I thought of my life when I graduated from high school several years ago. 

So graduates, let me offer this word to you as well:  I have found that my deepest joys in life have come as I have looked outside of myself to the needs of people around me.  God has put each one of you on this earth to make a profound difference in the world.  You are here, you are fearfully and wonderfully made; you are worthy of love and respect; God is at work in your life to change the world. 

What will you do?  How will you use your unique gifts to change the world.  How will you live so that your life is a blessing to others? 

Dear graduates, God’s blessings to you on this journey called life. Congratulations on what you have already accomplished.  Go with God.