Marlee Matlin gave the 2026 commencement address at the University of Oregon in sign language - with simultaneous translation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On June 15, 2026 the deaf actress Marlee Matlin gave the commencement address at the University of Oregon in sign language - with simultaneous translation. There is a sixteen-minute YouTube video from the University of Oregon on June 30, 2026 titled Marlee Matlin’s 2026 Commencement Address at the University of Oregon.

 

And there is an article by Annie Aguiar at Lookout Eugene Springfield on June 15, 2026 titled Actress Marlee Matlin urged UO grads (including her daughter) to ‘be yourself’ which has a full transcript.

 

At 8:45 she says:

 

“Courage plus dreams equals success. It’s not certainty plus dreams. It’s not perfection plus dreams, it’s courage plus dreams. It is true that dreams are great, but they don’t mean much if you’re too afraid to go after them, and adding some courage is what gets you to take the chance. Courage is applying for the job you’re not sure you’re going to get. Courage is starting over when something isn’t working anymore. Courage is asking for help. Courage is accepting that sometimes you are wrong, and courage is getting back up after you fail, or when life knocks you down.”

 

And at 14:20 she says:

 

“So, as you leave here today, I hope you can remember a few things. One, be yourself when it’s hard. Two, don’t let the world tell your story for you. And three, as I said before make your bed and make sure to pay your taxes.”

 

The PBS American Masters TV series has a documentary about her titled Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore. It includes a minute and a half section you can watch on YouTube titled Marlee Matlin and Henry Winkler reminisce about their long friendship. Another six-minute video at Page Six on June 19, 2025 is titled Marlee Matlin reveals the famous TV star who let her live with his family for two years.  

 

Her portrait was retouched from this 2025 one at Wikimedia Commons.  

 

 

On May 11, 2026 Harrison Ford gave the undergraduate commencement address at Arizona State University

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an article by Mary Beth Faller at ASU News on May 11, 2026 titled Harrison Ford tells ASU’s class of 2026: ‘This is your time.’ You can watch his eleven-minute speech in a YouTube video titled Harrison Ford undergraduate commencement address: Arizona State University (ASU).

 

There is another article by Ingrid Vasquez at People on May 13, 2026 titled Harrison Ford encourages ASU graduates to ‘Go change the world’ in passionate commencement speech. Yet another article by Alix Martichoux at The Hill, also on May 13, 2026 is titled Harrison Ford’s rousing commencement speech goes viral: ‘The world my generation left you is a real mess.’  Her description is:

 

“In an inspiring speech to the class of 2026, actor Harrison Ford admitted to the mistakes of his generation, before calling on young people to change the world.

He kicked off his commencement address Monday at Arizona State University by admitting he didn’t always make the best choices when he was young. ‘I was squandering my life in riotous living,’ the 83-year-old said of his college years. He found himself in a drama class looking for an easy A grade, but fell in love with acting.

‘Hiding in character, costume and makeup, I had a freedom, a bravery I had never felt before – and I got an A!’ he joked. ‘I was, I realized, present for possibly the very first time in my life. My passion had led me to community.’

Ford pursued acting, he told the students, while working carpentry jobs to pay the bills and support his family. Even after the success [of] ‘Star Wars,’ when things got easier, something still wasn’t quite right.

 ‘The load lightened. I had freedom, opportunity, but something was still missing.’ He had found passion for acting, but not purpose in life.

 That changed in the 1980s, Ford said, when he discovered the nonprofit Conservation International. As he continued starring in episodes of ‘Star Wars,’ the ‘Indiana Jones’ series, ‘Blade Runner’ and more, he found his true purpose in activism on behalf of the environment.

 ‘Humanity is a part of nature, not above it,’ he continued, making a plea for environmental justice, social justice and protecting indigenous communities. ‘These communities have long understood that the trees, the mountain, water, soil are not commodities, they are relatives to be cherished.’

 ‘We can all play a role by embracing that wisdom in our day-to-day lives, by loving the planet, by honoring nature’s authority, her generosity, the bounty she affords us, the justice of her example,’ he said. ‘Because the world you’re stepping into, the world my generation left you is a real mess.’

‘Find a place for yourself,’ he continued. ‘Whatever talent or ambition you have, find some way to put it to work. Build something that didn’t exist yesterday. Stand up for someone who can’t stand up for themselves. Bring people together that weren’t talking before. That’s leadership. That’s what moves the needle.’

‘Your generation has far more power than you may realize. And if you harness that power, if you find your leadership, your issues, your voice, the world will not be able to ignore you.’

 He ended with a few more inspiring final words: ‘This is your time. Own it. Enjoy every second of it. Because what could be worse than getting to the end of your life and realizing that you haven’t fully lived it. Congratulations. Go change the world.’ ”

 A 2025 portrait of Harrison Ford was adapted from this one at Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

Sundar Pichai gave the 2026 commencement speech at Stanford University

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sundar Pichai (the CEO of Alphabet and Google) gave the 2026 commencement speech at Stanford University on June 14, 2026. There is a 14-minute YouTube video. That speech was published in Vital Speeches of the Day for August 2026, on pages 176 to 178 with the title Three Filters That Have Helped Me Get More Moments Right Than Wrong. Five headings from it are:

 

Very few moments in life are make or break

Choose optimism

Work on hard things

Do what excites you

Conclusion

 

The chorus from folksinger Kate Wolf’s song Here in California accurately has said:  

 

“Here in California

The fruit hangs heavy on the vine

There’s no gold, I thought I’d warn you

And the hills turn brown in the summertime”

 

Under Choose Optimism  (at 7:50)  Sundar’s seventh and eighth paragraphs instead say that:

 

“If you’re not from here, California is advertised as being really lush and green. But when I looked out the window, it was more...brown. I guess I said this out loud, I’m not sure why. My host, Mrs. Jane Earl, gently corrected me. ‘We prefer to call it golden,’ she said.

And that’s exactly what I mean by choosing optimism. It’s about reframing for the positive: Where I saw brown, she saw golden. This slight change of perspective had a huge ripple effect on how I thought about the world around me.”

A portrait of Sundar came from Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

Comedian Conan O’Brien gave the 2026 commencement address at Harvard University

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday May 28, 2026 comedian Conan O’Brien gave the commencement address at Harvard University. (He has a degree in history and literature from there). You can watch a 25-minute video of his speech either at Harvard University and Conan O’Brien or on C-SPAN.

 

And the text is on pages 187 to 190 in the August 2026 issue of Vital Speeches of the Day titled Your Real Education Starts Now. Four sentences printed in bold there are:

 

“The first is that I endeavor to always remind myself that I have done absolutely nothing alone.

 

…Another thing I learned to do that has saved me repeatedly is to pivot.

 

…I always recognize the enormous role of luck in my life.

 

…let yourself be bad at things.”  

 

He also seriously says that:

 

“I understand that I am preaching modesty and connection at a time when this is not in style. We are living through a period of extreme narcissism. 

Our current leadership in Washington believes that empathy is a weakness, and that our nation stands supreme and alone. Add to that, everyone here today has a phone in their pocket that is algorithmically programmed to celebrate you and you alone by making you the protein-maxing hero of your own special journey. 

Much has been written about how isolated and siloed we’ve become, but for me the antidote is quite simple. By de-emphasizing what makes us special, in your case, a prize degree, we can really find one another, not as an exercise in virtue, but as a path towards greater laughter, love, and real growth. And believe me, I struggle daily with my own pretensions.

I am aware that I am telling you to transcend your glories as I stand on this stage accepting a doctorate I didn’t really earn, well dressed like a 12th century pope. Big surprise, I have a giant ego.”

An image of Conan was modified from one at Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

An excellent eighteen-minute 2026 commencement speech by country singer-songwriter Eric Church at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the ProRhetoric web site on May 11, 2026 I saw an article titled Your Life, as Six Strings. It has this quotation from country music singer-songwriter Eric Church:

 

"The difference between a life that sounds like music and a life that sounds like noise ... is whether you're honest enough to hear which string has drifted out of tune, and humble enough to make the adjustment."

 

There is an 18-minute YouTube video from May 14, 2026 titled Eric Church – 2026 Commencement Speech at UNC Chapel Hill (Full Version).

 

First he demonstrates how awful an out-of-tune guitar sounds. Then he discusses all six strings on it: Low E, A, D, G, B, and High E. String one, the low E is your foundation. That low E is your faith. String two, the A, is family. String three, the D, is your partner or best friend. String four, the G, is ambition and resilience. String 5, the B, is community. String six, the high E is the one most easily bent by outside pressure, but ignore that.

 

There is a five-and-a-half-minute lyric YouTube video of his recent song Darkest Hour sung live at the Pinnacle in Nashville on May 24, 2025.

 

The guitar image came from Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

The 2025 commencement speaker at Smith College admitted plagiarizing her speech and then relinquished her honorary degree

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Smith College held its 147th commencement on May 18, 2025. An article by Darin Zullo at Boston.com on May 20, 2025 about it is titled Smith College commencement speaker returns honorary degree after plagiarizing her speech. It linked to a letter by Sarah Willie-LeBreton at Presidential Letters: Follow-Up to Commencement 2025 on May 20, 2025 which stated that:

 

“I must share with you, however, that it has come to our attention that one of our honorary degree recipients—musician Evelyn M. Harris—borrowed much of her speech to graduates and their families from the commencement speeches of others without the attribution typical of and central to the ideals of academic integrity. 

In conversations about this after the event, Ms. Harris was forthcoming about her choices while also acknowledging that she sought to infuse the words of others with her own emotional valence. With appreciation for the requirement of academic integrity so central to the values of Smith, Ms. Harris has chosen to relinquish her honorary degree.” 

This event also was discussed by Jonathan Bailey at Plagiarism Today on May 21, 2025 in another article titled Graduation Speaker Plagiarizes Speech, Returns Honorary Degree. He has a section about other incidents titled The Long, Sad History of Commencement Plagiarism.

 

 My cartoon used a scroll adapted from OpenClipArt.  

 

 

How to write a five-star commencement speech

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On May 26, 2026 I blogged about how On May 2nd actor Hugh Jackman gave the commencement speech at Ball State University. When I was looking up the YouTube video for his speech to put in that post, I found a five-minute video from the Obama Foundation on May 21, 2026 titled How to write the perfect commencement speech. It has seven top tips from his presidential speechwriters:

 

Match the energy of the day!

Know your audience

Say something only you can say

Pick one big idea

Honor your audience’s accomplishment

Tell the truth

And (no surprise!) End With Hope

 

But I believe a perfect speech is an asymptote – a limit that can be approached but not quite reached. On February 20, 2011 I blogged about Effort and an asymptote.

 

The cartoon was assembled from a podium and star at OpenClipArt, and a speaker modified from Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

On May 2nd actor Hugh Jackman gave the commencement speech at Ball State University

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an article by Katherine Hill in the Ball State Daily News on May 2, 2026 titled ‘You are living your own life; no one can take that away from you’: Hugh Jackman addresses Ball State graduates. Another article by Ella Chakarian in Fast Company on May 4, 2026 is titled Hugh Jackman tells new grads the most ‘painful lesson’ he’s learned. She presented some quotes:

 

“ ‘My life has not gone the way I thought it would,’ Jackman said. ‘A lot of the best things that have ever happened to me have been mistakes or failures or random classes I joined to get me across the finish line.’

 At the end of his speech, Jackman told the graduating class to ‘throw away perfect’ and to ‘embrace that even the mistakes may turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to us.’

 ‘Our minds, our brains, they want a plan,’ he said. ‘They have all sorts of good reasons to follow a path because it makes sense. But if we’re listening, if we open our hearts, that voice inside is trying to show us something a little more magical, a little more mysterious [and] surprising.’ “ 

You can watch the entire 19-minute speech posted at C-SPAN on May 3, 2026 and titled Hugh Jackman Commencement Address.

 

A cartoon of Mr. Jackman as The Wolverine came from OpenClipArt.

 

 

What if a commencement speech told you to assume the worst?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a brief and humorous book from 2018 by Carl Hiassen titled Assume the Worst: The graduation speech you’ll never hear. Amazon has sample of first eight pages. It’s just 64 double-spaced pages, with hilarious cartoon illustrations by Roz Chast. Here’s a paraphrase from it:

 

 “This commencement address will never be given, because graduation speakers are supposed to offer encouragement and inspiration.

 

That’s not what you need. You need a warning.

 

After an uncommonly long career observing and writing about misbehavior, I have one piece of advice as you launch yourself from college: assume the worst.

 

Based on the last six thousand years of human history, it’s the only sensible way to proceed. Lowering your expectations will inoculate you against serial disappointments. It will also set you up for heart-lifting surprises on those occasions when someone you meet turns out to be unexpectedly honorable, generous and selfless.

 

…. 1. Live each day as if it’s your last.

      As wise and appealing as this might sound, it’s actually terrible advice. If you live every day as if it’s your last, you won’t accomplish a damn thing. You’ll soon run out of money, your car will get repossessed, you’ll be evicted from your apartment, and the person you’re living with will dump you for somebody with a mid-level management job at BrandsMart.

 

…. 2. If you set your mind to it, you can be anything you want to be.

     Total bullshit. Nobody can be absolutely anything they want to be – no matter how hard they wish, pray or try. I wanted to play major-league baseball like Willie Mays but unfortunately, I couldn’t run, catch or hit like Willie Mays. And I tried. Really hard. By eighth grade I’d bagged the whole fantasy and moved on.

 

…. 3. Try to find goodness in everyone you meet.

     Another waste of time. Relationships aren’t supposed to be reclamation projects. The humane qualities of any new acquaintance should be evident in the first five minutes of conversation – ten minutes, tops.

 

…. 4. Don’t be quick to judge others.

     Are you kidding? If you don’t learn how to judge others – and judge fast – you’ll get metaphorically trampled from now until the day you die.

 

…. To sum up.

     Figure out what you’re good at, and get better at it. Along the way, don’t waste your time on people whose decency isn’t apparent when you first meet for a cup of coffee. Be an astute judge of character, and learn to judge quickly.

 

Read the news. Pay attention. Always aspire to act in a way that cancels out someone else’s cruel or stupid behavior.

 

Never stop worrying. Live each day as if your rent is due tomorrow.

 

And always, always be the one who sleeps near the campfire – the one who would make Darwin proud.”

 

My version of the book cover cartoon was assembled by adapting an anvil from Wikimedia Commons and a silhouette from OpenClipArt. 

 

Brad Meltzer gave the 2024 spring commencement speech at the University of Michigan about making magic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On May 4, 2024 Brad Meltzer gave the 2024 spring commencement speech at the University of Michigan about making magic. There is an article about that speech by Katie Kelton at the University of Michigan Record on May 4, 2024 titled Commencement speaker shapes how magic provides insight to shape lives.

 

You can watch a 20-minute YouTube video of it titled Brad Meltzer’s 2024 Michigan Commencement Address – Make Magic. And it also is published in a 2025 book by Brad Meltzer titled Make Magic: The book of inspiration you didn’t know you needed. On Page 26 he explains that:

 

“Of course, that sounds absurd – real magic doesn’t exist. But when you ask professional magicians, they’ll tell you there are actually only four types of magic tricks. That’s it. Put aside illusions and escapes – there’s just four types of tricks:

 

1]  You make something appear.

 

2]  You make something disappear.

 

3]  You make two things switch places.

 

4]  And finally, you change one thing into something else.”

 

The cartoon wand was adapted from this one at OpenClipArt.

 

 

In his 2025 commencement address at the University of Maryland Kermit the Frog says to “leap together”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On May 22, 2025 the famous puppet Kermit the Frog spoke. (His creator, Jim Henson, was an alumnus of that university) He’s the ultimate speech prop! An article from The Associated Press at npr on May 23, 2025 is titled ‘Leap together,’ Kermit the Frog says in address at the University of Maryland graduation. His three main points are about:

 

1] Finding your people

2] Taking the leap together

3] Making connections

 

You can watch a fifteen-minute Youtube video at PBS NewsHour titled WATCH LIVE: Kermit the Frog delivers commencement speech at University of Maryland. And on May 23, 2025 The Baltimore Sun has another article titled Transcript: Read Kermit the Frog’s University of Maryland commencement speech.

 

Kermit is voiced by Matt Vogel, as described on June 6, 2023 in a nineteen-minute Youtube video at Webster University titled Matt Vogel | Webster University Commencement Speech |2023.

 

Filmmaker Ken Burns’s advice to graduates from his 2024 undergraduate commencement address at Brandeis University on May 19th

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Noted filmmaker Ken Burns gave the 2024 undergraduate commencement address at Brandeis University. You can read a transcript here. There also is a YouTube video here. Ken gave them the following advice:

 

“Listen. Be curious, not cool. Insecurity makes liars of us all. Remember, none of us get out of here alive. The inevitable vicissitudes of life, no matter how well gated our communities, will visit us all. Grief is a part of life, and if you explore its painful precincts, it will make you stronger. Do good things, help others. Leadership is humility and generosity squared. Remember the opposite of faith is not doubt. Doubt is central to faith. The opposite of faith is certainty. The kinship of the soul begins with your own at times withering self-examination. Try to change that unchangeable human nature of Ecclesiastes, but start with you. ‘Nothing so needs reforming,’ Mark Twain once chided us, ‘as other people’s habits.’

 

Don’t confuse success with excellence. Do not descend too deeply into specialism. Educate all your parts, you will be healthier. Do not get stuck in one place. ‘Travel is fatal to prejudice,’ Twain also said. Be in nature, which is always perfect and where nothing is binary. Its sheer majesty may remind you of your own atomic insignificance, as one observer put it, but in the inscrutable and paradoxical ways of wild places, you will feel larger, inspirited, just as the egotist in our midst is diminished by his or her self-regard.

 

At some point, make babies. One of the greatest things that will happen to you, I mean it, one of the greatest things that will happen to you is that you will have to worry, I mean really worry, about someone other than yourself. It is liberating and exhilarating, I promise. Ask your parents (audience laughs).

 

Choose honor over hypocrisy, virtue over vulgarity, discipline over dissipation, character over cleverness, sacrifice over self-indulgence. Do not lose your enthusiasm, in its Greek etymology the word enthusiasm means simply, ‘God in us.’ Serve your country. Insist that we fight the right wars. Denounce oppression everywhere.    

 

Convince your government, as Lincoln understood, that the real threat always and still comes from within this favored land. Insist that we support science and the arts, especially the arts. They have nothing to do with the actual defense of our country; they just make our country worth defending. Remember what Louis Brandeis said, ‘The most important political office is that of the private citizen.’ Vote. Please vote. You indelibly underscore your citizenship, and most important, our kinship with each other when you do. Good luck and Godspeed.” 

 

He included a pair of Mark Twain quotes, and one from Louis Brandeis. The first Twain quote on reforming habits is from Pudd’inhead Wilson, as discussed by Garson O’Toole at Quote Investigator on February 16, 2017 in an article titled Put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket. The second is from Innocents Abroad, as discussed by Craig Thompson at

Clearing Customs on September 8, 2019 in another article titled The reports of Mark Twain’s travel quotations are somewhat exaggerated.

 

 The silhouette came from Openclipart.

 

Could you write a speech consisting of nothing but questions?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is that possible? Yes! I found a pair of commencement speeches where rather than provide answers they only had questions. One was given in 2019 by David Glaser at Tufts University. It is described in an article by Joel Abrams at The Conversation on May 16, 2019 titled This commencement speech had nothing but questions. A second, last year for the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola University, is described in another article by Fred Sanders at LeadingWithQuestions on July 20, 2023 titled A Few Questions For You.

 

What about poems or songs? William Blake’s 1794 poem The Tyger just is questions. And in her 2023 album A Great Wild Mercy Carrie Newcomer has a song titled A Book of Questions. You can watch a five-minute lyric video for it on YouTube. (The brief chorus is not questions).

 

How about an entire novel consisting of questions? I have two examples with excerpts at Google Books. From 2001 there is Gold Fools by Gilbert Sorrentino. And from 2009 there is The Interrogative Mood by Padgett Powell. The Kirkus Reviews article on The Interrogative Mood opens by whining that:

 

“This novel a one-trick pony, and that trick is a question mark.”

 

How did I get started on this offbeat topic? At the public library I got Dwight Garner’s 2023 book The Upstairs Delicatessen. On page 108 he says:

 

“Powell wrote a 164-page novel, The Interrogative Mood, in which every sentence is a question. (Sample: ‘Have you decided yet which historical moment you would most like to have witnessed with your own eyes and ears?’) The form suited Powell, because he’s one of the most inquisitive writers we have.”

  

An image of a head full of questions was adapted from one at Openclipart.

 

How to Write a Great Commencement Speech

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an excellent whitepaper from January 10, 2018 by Aaron Hoover at the Professional Speechwriters Association (PSA) titled How to Write a Great Commencement Speech (and Why You Must). You can download the 12-page .pdf file here. Mr. Hoover discusses how these speeches share five common characteristics:

 

Impart personal wisdom based on a candid account of life experiences

Relay a simple, socially sharable message

Consider the present times

Advise and inspire through example rather than exhortation

Convey joy, fun and celebration.

 

There are five boxes with lists of tips, and at the end he has lists of dos and don’ts. Under further resources there are links to some great speeches.

 

Back on June 29, 2016 I blogged about Commencement speeches and big questions. This year I blogged about two speeches, August 4, 2023 on Quotations from Vital Speeches of the Day: #3 Marcus Fila on playing the long game, and September 17, 2023 on Quotations from Vital Speeches of the Day: #5 – John McEnroe on how This is the Time to Take Your Shots.

 

There is a May 15, 2019 press release titled Toastmasters International Lists 5 Memorable Commencement Speeches in the Last 5 Years.  

 

An image of the 1991 commencement at the University of Michigan - Dearborn came from the Library of Congress.

 

Quotations from Vital Speeches of the Day: #5 – John McEnroe on how This is the Time to Take Your Shots

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John McEnroe gave the commencement address at Stanford University on June 18, 2023. His speech, titled This is the time to take your shots, appeared in the August 2023 issue of Vital Speeches of the Day magazine on pages 184 to 186. John said:

 

“....For all the positive steps we’ve seen in caring for our mental health, we’re also seeing the flipside where people are attempting to eliminate stress or pain altogether. Which is impossible. It’s the ‘everyone geta a trophy’ kind of mentality. It’s ridiculous and, honestly, a little dangerous. Not everyone is meant to be good at everything. And it’s very important for people who are high-flying mental giants, like all of you, to realize taking risks, failing, and learning from your failures is essential to your development. And sometimes a loss is the best thing that can happen to you.

 

In 1980 Björn Borg and I played in what is considered one of the greatest Wimbledon finals of all time. After three hours and 55 minutes of some seriously intense tennis, I lost in five sets. Of course, I wanted to win. I gave it everything I had – but I wouldn’t trade that moment for anything.

 

The truth is most people don’t remember who won that match. And don’t care. I once had the privilege of meeting the great Nelson Mandela. He told me he listened to that match on a tiny radio from his prison cell on Robben Island. And that the whole prison hung on every point of that match. That we gave Mandela a brief respite from the excruciating hell of 27 years of political imprisonment meant more to me than any award I’ve ever won. The lesson here is you don’t have to win to be part of something that is truly magical.

 

A few years after that Wimbledon final Björn quit tennis at age 26. It was devastating to me and the rest of the sport. In the mid-80s, if you were on my path. I would destroy you. Top of my game. But I wasn’t truly happy. Why? Because being the best in the world wasn’t as good as playing with someone who pushed you to greatness. Which is why I BEGGED my biggest rival to come back to the sport.

 

At the time he said to me, ‘If you’re not #1, it doesn’t matter whether you’re #2 or #100.’ Even though I understood where he was coming from, I disagreed with him then and still do. Number 2 is pretty damn good. Sometimes, you have to appreciate where you’re at in life. If your mentality is ‘If it’s not success, then it’s failure,’ your life will be really, really hard. Success us another chance to keep plugging away at what we love to do. That’s all it really is.

 

….Graduates, this is the time to take your shots. Your life will go by fast. Give it your all. Stand up for yourself. Stay curious. Be a good citizen of the world. Don’t get crushed under the weight of your expectations. Know that the real victory in life is the long game - measure your success by how much you evolve, not necessarily how much you win. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. And for chrissakes, have the balls to say what you feel.”

 

John’s advice to be a good citizen differs from his earlier behavior. The Wikipedia article about him notes he was known for:

 

“his confrontational on-court behavior, which frequently landed him in trouble with umpires and tennis authorities.”

 

The image by Brett Weinstein came from Wikimedia Commons.