They informed me that I should speech for my son’s school’s “graduation” ceremony to high school. What a world! In Whole education time, I just had one graduation ceremony, and that was graduation from University, which they forced the university to have it. But nowadays for moving to every new grade they have a ceremony.
They informed me when I only had an hour to get ready, my son’s grade has 128 students and I must’ve talked to this many students and of course their parents. I’ve learned to take hours for writing one minute of the speech’s transcript, but I couldn’t use that and I had to improvise. to get set for the speech, I thought of the speech’s of others in such ceremonies, for example: Steve jobs’ speech in Stanford university has been famous.
I remembered Kurt Vonnegut’s conference for” Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ’1998”, which anyone will enjoy reading or listening to it. The time they’d translated it, it had been very famous and everyone thought it was real, but later I understood like George Washington’s axe, it was a beautiful but fictional story.
After a lot of problems, I made up a speech and spoke in the ceremony, but Vonnegut’s conference was very interesting to me.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was an American novelist from a wealthy German family whom his books had been translated in my country.He was an educated man whom the Nazi force took him as a prisoner in the WWII (World War 2). the adventures while he was a prisoner, was the plot of most of stories. Books such as “Slaughterhouse-Five” or Cat’s Cradle ” or ” A Man Without a country”
with a little search, I found his conference’s transcript. you’ll enjoy reading it :
Ladies and gentlemen of the class, Wear sunscreen.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by science, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.
– Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall, in a way you can’t grasp now, how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.
– Don’t worry about the future. Worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum.
– The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never cross your worried mind — the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.
– Do one thing every day that scares you.
– Sing.
Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts. Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.
– Floss.
– Don’t waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long and, in the end, it’s only with yourself.
– Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
– Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.
– Stretch.
– Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t.
– Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You’ll miss them when they’re gone.
– Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 85th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else’s.
– Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.
– Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.
– Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.
– Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.
– Get to know your parents. You never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They’re your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
– Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.
– Travel.
– Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you’ll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders. Respect your elders.
– Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you’ll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.
– Don’t mess too much with your hair or by the time you’re 40, it will look 85.
– Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it.
Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts, and recycling it for more than it’s worth.
– But trust me on the sunscreen.
Kurt Vonnegut
