Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Kenyon Commencement
This speech is eye opening to let go of assumptions, selfishness, and pre-judgement. It's unlike any graduation type speech that just warns you to look out for your future, how the real world works its unforgiving ways in life, and wishing everyone well on their journey. He begins with the 'fish' story of how two young fish were swimming along and the wise fish swam the other way against the norm asking about the water when the other two did not understand what the hell water even was although they were swimming in it. It was a very clever metaphor for the speech. All people think different have different beliefs. His speech strays from the norm and gives insight to people as individuals instead of grouping everyone together with their similarities as humans. He says many little stories to bring about his ideas and points then proceeds to explain those stories in a way that is relatable to all individuals. I thought his work was put together very well. The ending he says, "your education really is the job of a lifetime" which is my favorite line because you are told how important getting an education is, as a kid growing up all your responsible for is school, then other things add on to your life and school doesn't quite seem like the 'job' anymore but all your life it will be the job. I didn't understand this fully until this speech. I did not understand all of it i will admit but the parts i did understand I gained from.
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I agree with you in the fact that this speech is eye opening and helps us see past our first judgments of people. I believe the fish story is a good example of how some of us, as humans, view the world. Some people don’t really live life to the fullest, so we don’t understand what it is to be alive. He does go against the norm of how we think a graduation speech should be. He talked about how life as an adult truly is, bringing up the routine we get into and the things some people think. When he goes into detail about how the woman could be woman who helped your spouse resolve a horrific, infuriating, red tape problem. I believe this is a good way to think about other people because it gives them the benefit of the doubt and I know that is how I would want others to think about me. Not judging me because I’m in their way, but not judging at all. I agree with you when you say that this is well put together. Although it may not make much sense if it was separated into smaller stories, it flows well as a whole. I think that “your education is the job of a lifetime’ is accurate because we are always learning new things and adding on to what we already know or think. This was a good speech to read, for me, because it helped me think in new ways, which I think was the point of it in the first place.
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