I want our young people to know that they matter
that they belong.
So don't be afraid
You hear me? young people don't be afraid
Be focused
Be determined
Be hopeful
Be empowered.
Empower yourselves with a good education
then get out there and use that education
to build a country worthy of your boundless promise.
Lead by example with hope; never fear
Our greatness has never ever come from sitting back and feeling entitled to what we have
It's never come from folks who climb the ladder of success
or who happened to be born near the top and then pull the ladder up after themselves
No, ah ah
Our greatness has always come from people who expect nothing
and take nothing for granted.
Folks who work hard for what they have, then reach back and help others after them.
Success isn't about how your life looks to others
it's about how it feels to you.
We realize that being successful isn't about being impressive
It's about being inspired
and and that's what it means to be your true self.
It means looking inside yourself
and being honest about what you truly enjoy doing because graduates
I can promise you that you will never be happy plodding through someone else's idea of success.
Success is only meaningful and enjoyable
if it feels like your own.
You should never view your challenges as a disadvantage.
Instead it's important for you to understand
that your experience facing and overcoming adversity
is actually one of your biggest advantages
and I know that because I've seen it myself
Not just as a student working my way through school
but years later when I, after I came, before I came
to the White House and I worked as a dean at a college.
In that role I encountered students who had every advantage.
Their parents paid their full tuition, they lived in beautiful campus dorms
they had every material possession a college kid could want; cars, computers, spending money.
But when some of them got their first bad grade, they just fell apart
they lost it
because they were ill-equipped to handle their first encounter
with disappointment or falling short
But graduates, as you all know
Life will put many obstacles in your path that are far worse than a bad grade.
You'll, you'll have unreasonable bosses and difficult clients and patients.
You’ll experience illnesses and losses, crises and setbacks
that will come out of nowhere and knock you off your feet.
but unlike so many other young people
you have already developed the resilience and the maturity
that you need to pick yourself up and dust yourself off and keep moving through the pain
keep moving forward.
You may be feeling some real anxiety
about venturing out into the world beyond these walls
And I'm not gonna lie to you
for many of you this is going to be a pretty big transition.
In fact, I think Dr. Martin Luther King
described it well in his commencement address in 65 when he declared quote
“today you bid farewell to the safe security of the academic environment
you prepare to continue your journey on the clamorous highways of life.”
We all feel at times a little bit lost
and we all have some kind of emptiness that we're searching to fill
and often it is only through serving others that we find what's been missing in our own lives.
And like so many of you
through service I was able to find what I needed and carve a path for my life
that truly felt like my own.
And the truth is, those seminars where you explored new ideas
those late-night conversations where you challenged each other
and learned from each other, after all of that.
You might find yourself a little dismayed by the clamor outside these walls
the name-calling, the negative ads, the folks yelling at each other on TV
the power of inventing the future.
I just want to pause for a moment on the word invent
because the term- phrase isn't, succeed in the future
it's not plan for the future or do the best you can in the future.
it's invent the future.
and with those three words comes a simple message
a call to chart your own course and live life on your own terms.
and that's a lesson that I first learned back when I was a teenager.
And some of you may have grown up like I did
in neighborhoods where kids had -very few of them- had the chance to go to college
where being teased for doing well in school, was just a fact of life
where well-meaning but misguided folks questioned whether a girl with my background
could get into the kinds of colleges I dreamed of attending.
After being surrounded by people who are
so dedicated to serving others and making the world a better place
You might feel a little discouraged by the polarization
and gridlock that too often characterizes our politics and civic life.
And in the face of all that clamor
You might have an overwhelming instinct to just run the other way as fast as you can.
You might be tempted to find a community of like-minded folks
and work with them on causes you care about and just tune out all of the noise.
I worked hard and I did my best to tune out those voices of doubt
including the ones inside my own head
And eventually, I was accepted to Princeton
and I got that education that my dad had always dreamed of.
But the truth is graduates,
there will always be folks who make assumptions about you, based on superficial things like
where you're from or what you're wearing or how you look
There will always be folks who judge you based on just one thing that you say or do
folks who define you based on one isolated incident.
I want to urge you to do just the opposite.
Today, I want to suggest that if you truly wish
to carry on the Oberlin legacy of service and social justice
Then you need to run to and not away from the noise.
today, I want to urge you to actively seek out
the most contentious, polarized, gridlocked places you can find.
Because so often throughout our history
those have been the places where progress really happens.
The places where minds are changed, lives transformed.
In the end, people can only define you if you let them.
In the end, It's up to each of us to define ourselves.
It's up to each of us to invent our own future
with the choices we make and the actions we take.
To succumb to feelings of despair and anger only means that in the end we lose.
Those feelings are not an excuse to just throw up our hands and give up.
Not an excuse, they are not an excuse to lose hope.
But here's the thing
our history provides us with a better story
a better blueprint for how we can win.
it teaches us that when we pull ourselves out of the lowest emotional depths
and we channel our frustrations into studying and organizing and banding together
then we can build ourselves and our communities up.
we can take on those deep rooted problems and together
together we can overcome anything that stands in our way.
Nothing, and I mean nothing is going to stop you from fulfilling your dreams.
And you deserve every last one of the successes that I know you will have.
But I also want to be very clear that with those successes comes a set of obligations
To share the lessons you've learned here at this school.
The obligation to use the opportunities you've had to help others.
That means raising your hand when you get a seat in that board meeting
and asking the question “Well, whose voices aren't being heard here?”
“What ideas are we missing?”
It means adding your voice to our national conversation
speaking out for our most cherished values of liberty
opportunity, inclusion and respect the values that you've been living here at this school.
It means reaching back
to help young people who've been left out and left behind
helping them prepare for college, helping them pay for college.
So I want you all to go out there
be great, build great lives for yourself
enjoy the liberties that you have in this great country
pursue your own version of happiness.
And please, please, always, always do your part
to help others do the same.