[MUSIC PLAYING]
Commencement addresses are like a ridiculous form.
They really are.
I oppose them.
It's a kind of speech that's doomed to failure precisely
because nothing can be said that is up to the task at hand.
You are being launched from this training phase of your life
into the vast, exciting unknown of everything
that is to come in your life.
What words can I or anybody say to make that better?
Seriously, what poncey little speech
makes the liftoff of a rocket better?
If you have been touched by the success fairy,
people think you know why.
It's true.
People think success breeds enlightenment
and you are duty-bound to spread it around like manure, really.
Fertilize those young minds.
Let them in on the secret.
What is it that you know that no one else knows?
The self-examination begins.
One looks inward.
One opens an interior door.
Cobwebs.
Black.
The light bulbs burned out.
The airless dank refrigerator of an insanely overscheduled,
unexamined life.
Making your mark on the world is hard.
It takes patience.
It takes commitment.
It comes with plenty of setbacks and it
comes with plenty of failures.
But whenever you feel that creeping cynicism,
whenever you hear those voices say
you can't make a difference, whenever somebody tells you
to set your sights lower, the trajectory of this country
should give you hope.
Previous generations should give you hope.
What young generations have done before should give you hope.
Young folks who marched and mobilized and stood up and sat
in, from Seneca Falls to Selma to Stonewall,
didn't just do it for themselves.
They did it for other people.
That's how we achieved women's rights.
That's how we achieved voting rights.
That's how we achieved workers' rights.
That's how we achieved gay rights.
That's how we've made this union more perfect.
And if you're willing to do your part now,
if you're willing to reach up and close that gap between what
America is and what America should be,
I want you to know that I will be right there with you.
If you're ready to fight for that brilliant, radically
simple idea of America, then no matter who you are
or what you look like, no matter who you love
or what god you worship, you can still
pursue your own happiness.
I will join you every step of the way.
What you have to realize, though,
is that everyone is scared.
What is going to set you apart is
how you deal with that fear, how you can power through it.
And if you have the relentless determination,
fortitude, and sheer tenacity to transform
all of that nervous energy and anxiety into courage.
Courage to try, courage to take risks,
and courage to face failure.
Admitting one's privilege isn't an indictment of oneself,
but ignoring it in the face of those without is.
And I believe the purpose of what we do with our time,
with our resources, if it is not in support
of all the life around us, then what we are doing,
what we are engaged in isn't worth anything at all.
That is where the bar is now.
In this pandemic, you can remake the world as it should be.
To see COVID-19 as a force majeure that
compels us to rewrite the social contract that's been scrambled
by nature's fury and human failures,
you can set the terms for an economy, health care system,
education system, immigration system, and a justice system
that uplifts more people of every race, gender,
and generation.