The “g” word is beginning to escape the lips of many college seniors right about now. No, this is not some expose about new, awful things kids are saying these days. We’re talking about graduation. After several months (or years) of denial, these seniors will be walking across the stage soon, and stepping off into a world that doesn’t seem as bright as they saw it a few years ago. These graduates don’t want graduation quotes about how the world is their oyster, they want a practical guide that can help them navigate the treacherous waters ahead. With that in mind, these are the best graduation quotes for people ready to do battle, not people who intend to just wait until things get better.
“It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness” – Chinese Proverb
It is very easy to be cynical right now. Politicians seem to do nothing but snipe as the economy doesn’t seem to get any better. The job market is so tough that moving back in with Mom and Dad after graduation currently seems like the most viable option. The graduation quotes about just wanting things enough seem particularly inappropriate. There are plenty of people groaning about the way things are right now. You don’t have to be one of them. Instead of spending the energy complaining about how bad things are, spend it going over your resume. Everyone can complain, but not everyone is willing to put in energy to find solutions to tough problems.
“Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.”
– Albert Einstein
“Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.”
– Francis Bacon
So, you’re finally out of school. Remember how sometimes you felt so stifled, reading all these books that you heard were important but didn’t always seem that way. Guess what? No more assigned reading. So, you run off and either read the trashiest thing you can find or that classic you always wanted to read but never seemed to come up in any of your classes.
How about doing neither. Take a pen to paper and write out those ideas that have been kicking around in your head. Don’t try to be Keynesian, a String Theorist, or a graduation quote expert. Just write what you think. Nobody has to see it but you, and now there’s no vindictive TA to turn the sheet into a sea of red. Expressing these ideas could be a lot more valuable than that 8:30 you slept through half the time sophomore year.
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.” – Mark Twain
Lots of graduation quotes and speeches make you feel as if you should be able to take on a 1,000 man army with your diploma and a paper clip and think nothing of it. You should be absolutely fearless in the presence of overwhelming odds. But fear isn’t always bad. Left unchecked, it can wreak havoc, but if you can accept and channel it, you have a powerful ally. Accepted fear is what makes us realize that we need to fortify ourselves and get a bigger weapon if we do have to take on 1,000 people. Channeled fear is what causes us to stash away a few bucks every pay-day for that rainy day that might come sooner or later.
The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have” – Vince Lombardi
Everyone has that friend who’s going to be staying in a really nice apartment with his parent’s money while they “look” for a job. The most appropriate graduation quote for him is something like “Just, like hang out, and stuff will happen somehow.” Meanwhile, you’re either stuck in a tiny studio or sharing an apartment with about six other people grinding away more than full-time at a job if you’re lucky.
You might not have the best house or the best networking connections, but you can do the best with what you’ve got. That statement seems so obvious that I’m really worried it will sound condescending, but it’s so easy to lose that perspective once the real world kicks you down a couple of times. Keep working within your means, and you might be surprised how quickly those means expand.
“When you are through changing, you are through.” – Bruce Barton
Not an easy thing to hear, but to make it in whatever you’re doing a couple months after graduation you’ll have to change. However, this after graduation change often seems to be sold as the one big change you’ll have to make until you get married or decide to move to Tahiti.
If you actually intend to get what you want, whether it be save the world or get tons of cash, you’re going to have to constantly evolve and adapt. The change doesn’t stop, but it doesn’t have to be bad. Instead of viewing it as a pain, view it as an exciting opportunity.
“Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.” – Buddha
As we move into the world, we often are told that more is better. Working more, doing more, trying more. Especially with social media like Facebook and Twitter, we’re often sharing a lot “more.” However, since so much more of us is public, we tend to keep closest to us the parts of us that matter most.
So instead of being the guy at the office who’s always talking, try being the guy who doesn’t say a whole lot. Graduation quotes often come from people who said a lot, but people tend to actually listen to the quiet guy a lot more.
“There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.”
– Maya Angelou
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
It’s cool to be jaded and disconnected. All the hope we heard about fairly recently seems a long ways away for a lot of us. This reality doesn’t mean we should just disconnect and remain silent from the things we care about. The potential for hurt and disappointment is definitely there, and it is often easier to just keep your mouth shut. No one wants to be seen as young and naïve.
But do you want to be you, or do you want to be a watered-down version of you that smiles through gritted teeth at people who haven’t given a thought to the things you care about most? Be another cautionary tale that those people have in mind when they spew off graduation quotes?
“The greatest glory lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
-Confucius
Who do we admire more, the person who inherited millions and lives on a yacht somewhere in the Pacific, or the person who worked three jobs to get through college and made some money starting their own company manufacturing components necessary for green energy? While we all understandably wish for the easy path at least some of the time, having to deal with failure, disappointment, and setbacks molds us into who we are.
We just have to keep picking ourselves up off the mat. There’s no shortcut, no 6 quick steps, no quote that will make the path easier, no way around it. Either you keep fighting and you learn, or you give up. Giving up is easy, but truly living is the best thing we ever have the chance to do.
Your move.
Quotes from: http://www.brainyquote.com/
