Don’t Be Late For Your LIfe

You are talented and able people and I have great confidence in you. I suspect you will do great things. I trust that you will always remain grounded and remember where you have come from.

My greatest hope for you is for you to be happy and fulfilled, to find a life that suits you and that you live it with conviction and passion. You have learned subject matter in hyour academic life, but I trust that you have also learned about yourself. And now, with that knowledge it is time to embark on the real journey.

Along the way…………………

Fall in love and linger there as long as you can

Find your bliss and follow it

Learn to say you’re sorry and mean it

Realize you are never as good as you are on your best day, and never as bad as you are on your worst

Bend the rules, that’s what they were made for

Stand on top of a mountain and in the depths of a valley and enjoy both views

Ride in a gondola in Venice, walk the Champs-Elysees and stand in St. Peter’s Square

Be a parent and work hard at it

Plant something and watch it grow

Try something you aren’t good at and don’t quit

Be humble

And don’t be late for your life

Contemplate DYLAN…..really!

Learn to say “I was wrong” and mean it

Be confident

Respect the earth and all the things that inhabit it

Play an instrument, even if it’s badly

Build your bank account…..your memory bank account

Talk less and listen more

Sit on a front porch in the South with a glass of iced tea

Tell a lot of jokes, even if you are lousy at telling them

Read a book a month and pass it on to someone else

Write more letters and fewer instant messages

And don’t be late for your life

Find spiritual meaning and contemplate a power greater than yourself

Watch a sunrise from an airplane and a sunset from a boat

Learn another language

Share laughter; because it’s infectious

Read a poem each day and celebrate the sound and beauty of language

Find friends you can “pass time” with

Help someone because you want to, not because you have to

Stand on the corner in Winslow, Arizona and see if it is “such a fine site to see”

Own things; don’t let them own you

And don’t be late for your life

Use your mind

Nourish your spirit

Explore your soul

Cry at a movie and admit it

Try and listen to sitar music

Fight for peace

Embrace diversity

Listen to CASH and use less credit

And don’t be late for your life

Schedule an early morning class to remember why you are really there

Thank your parents for the sacrifices they made

Tell the truth……it is the better option

Don’t self-medicate……there are no answers there

Drive Highway One (in California) in a convertible

Go to Wrigley and sit in the bleachers on a summer afternoon

Remember those that went before you and contemplate those that will follow

Teach your children to read and to love it

Go to a drive-in in your pajamas

Walk barefoot on as many beaches as you can

Always buckle up

Revel in silence

Ignore mediocrity

Defend freedom

Attack ignorance

And most of all, be the hero of your own life

Iris Lemon once said to Roy Hobbs, “We have two lives; the one we learn with and the one we live with after that.”

The time has come to bid you farewell. Go and live well!