𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐀𝐝𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐝

𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐀𝐝𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐬𝐨 𝐟𝐚𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐟 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧 𝐆. 𝐑𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐬, 𝐉𝐫. 𝐚𝐭 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐧.

Why would I wish you misfortune? 🍀 Because life’s toughest blows are what mold our character and give us the resilience we truly need to face life’s inevitable challenges.

This speech flips traditional well-wishes on their head, celebrating not success handed on a silver platter but resilience forged through failure, humility learned from setbacks, and empathy born from hardship.

Each struggle such as loneliness, injustice, and even gloating opponents becomes a lesson in strength and wisdom. It’s a powerful reminder to embrace life’s missteps as unexpected guides, shaping you into someone who deeply understands justice, loyalty, and compassion:

“And as far as the confidence goes, I think you will appreciate that it is not because you succeeded at everything you did, but because with the help of your friends 🤝 you are not afraid to fail. And if you did fail, you got up and tried again 💪. And if you failed again, you got up and tried again. And if you fail again, it might be time to think about doing something else 🔄.

It was not just success 🏆, but not being afraid to fail, that brought you to this point.

Now the Commencement speakers will typically also wish you good luck 🍀 and extend good wishes to you.

I will not 🚫 do that, and I’ll tell you why:

From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly so that you will come to know the value of justice. ⚖️

I hope that you will suffer betrayal 🤕, because that will teach you the importance of loyalty.

Sorry to say, but I hope you will be lonely 😔 from time to time so that you don’t take friends for granted 🤗.

I wish you bad luck 🎲 again from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either.

And when you lose as you will from time to time, I hope every now and then your opponent will gloat over your failure 🥇. It is a way for you to understand the importance of sportsmanship.

I hope you’ll be ignored 👂 so you know the importance of listening to others.

And I hope you will have just enough pain 💔 to learn compassion ❤️.

Whether I wish these things or not, they’re going to happen, and whether you benefit from them or not will depend upon your ability to see the message in your misfortunes 🔍.”