Dear Graduates: You Are Going To Die

National Catholic Register ^ | 4/22/2013 | Patrick Archbold

[marcbold]

Congratulations graduates on your achievement. You managed to finish four years of expensive babysitting, ostensibly designed to prepare you for life, even though it bears absolutely no resemblance to it. Well, except for the fact that most of you have racked up inordinate amounts of debt with very little of value to show for it. That part resembles life quite well, actually.

These speeches are called commencement addresses for a reason, they are supposed to be about the beginning of things. You have completed one thing and now you begin another, real life.

Every commencement, by statute, must talk about this moment as the beginning of an incredible journey, and it is, a journey. So let’s talk about this journey. Every worthwhile journey must have a worthwhile destination. Many commencement speakers will tell you that it isn’t about the destination, that the journey is the real destination and it doesn’t really matter where you are going.

That’s a load of bollocks.

The destination matters, believe me. The further along on the journey you get, the more you realize this. The destination matters. So as you begin on the journey, let’s talk about the destination.

You are going to die.

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/pat-archbold/dear-graduates-you-are-going-to-die/#ixzz2RRCTZz7q

[marcbold]

The commencement speech I wish I heard.

[tflabo]

Ecclesiastes 7:4

A wise person thinks a lot about death,
while a fool thinks only about having a good time.