Graduation Speech: Reach for What You Want :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

Life is a big store, a market. Now, before you tune out, let me explain this strange analogy. You'll get what I'm saying What do people do in life? They do what they want to do. They spend life trying to get what they want. Whether that's possessions, wisdom, fame, fortune or simply survival, people everywhere right now are living life getting what they want. You're probably thinking: Hey, what about those people that spend their lives serving others or serving God? Think about it some more. Let's say that a guy wants salvation, he's going to spend his life attaining salvation. Let's say she wants to end child hunger. She'll work to end child hunger. While poverty and becoming famous are very different things, the want is not. The feeling of true want is the same for all of us no matter what it is you're wanting. It's this want that makes us human and keeps us involved in this thing called life. Now you might begin to understand why I've compared life to a market. Why do people go to the market or to the store or to the mall? It's because they want something. You want food? Go to the store and buy some. You want clothes? Buy them. You want to give a gift to someone? Find it at the mall! In the same way, life is a market. You want more knowledge? It's yours if you pay for it by studying. You want skill? It'll cost you many hours of practice. You want to graduate? That'll come out to four years of hard work, as you all have done. Now, here's some good news: tonight, our market is expanding! We're moving on to a new market, in a bigger building at a larger town with more people who want better things. Moments in our lives such as learning how to read or graduating from high school are, simply put, expansions of our market of life. But, before we "move on to the big time," we need to do something that all good merchants do: we need to take stock of what we have. I don't mean for you to go home after this and count up how many cans of food you have (not that that's not important.) I mean, reflect upon yourself and your life and take your personal inventory. Look around you. Look within you.