Society & US
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![]() by: Isael Diaz A commencement speech is a type of speech that is given to graduating students, usually at a university. Typically, one that gives the speech is a well recognized person from various industries. The person that is giving the speech is referred as the commencement speaker. The best thing about a commencement speech the speaker initially has the freedom to take his or her speech in the direction that they wish to choose. A speaker has the opportunity to his or her experiences, values, and advice to the graduating class that gives the ones who are graduating motivation and inspiration in whatever desire they wish to endure as they continue to progress on with their own lives. Throughout the years, there have been many wonderful commencement speeches that have the opportunity to be very insightful, motivating, and inspirational that people must hear these glorious speeches. With that said, I’ll be counting down the top five greatest commencement speeches of all time. 5.Barack Obama (2009 Arizona State University) This speech marked Obama’s first commencement speech as president of the United States. His tone in the speech was very congratulating as he gave thanks to those who were involved and gave tons of help with the graduating class. At moments during the speech he made jokes which got the audience to laugh including myself, which is ok to do a college commencement speech in order for the audience to be engaged and not bored. Obama knew that the economy was struggling due to coming off of the 2008 recession and he was admitting the US is in the time of difficulty which is why he wanted to remind the graduates of what is currently going on in the world so that it can give them inspiration to make the necessary change in the world. The line that stood out to me the most in the speech was, “despite having achieved a remarkable milestone in your life, “despite the fact that you and your families are so rightfully proud, you too cannot rest on your laurels.” To me what Obama was trying to say was that despite already graduating there is still work to be done. After finishing college one enters the real world and should be ready for the challenges and obstacles that will face them. 4. Bo Jackson (2009 Auburn University) In college commencement speeches, usually, the speaker that is chosen is usually associated with the particular college. Auburn probably had a couple of names that they wanted to speech at the graduation and choosing the most notable alumni from Auburn was going to make the commencement speech very special to the university’s graduation. Based on Jackson’s speech the main take away that he wanted to graduates to learn is to about stepping out your comfort zone. Bo gave an example about an issue that he had to deal with while he was in college was a speech impediment which resulted him to be shy. He recalled the moment in college when he had troubled with public speaking and participation in the class because he felt that he was going to be judge the wrong way. Stepping out of your comfort zone is such a very important thing to know because in life there is always going to be things that you never see yourself do at all. The line that stood out to me the most was, “Get outside the box. Make things happen, be your own person” because it is connected to the main idea of his speech and it is a very important life lesson to know as one is about to enter the real world. 3.Tom Hanks (2011 Yale University) What made this speech very interesting to me is that Tom Hanks connected the words faith and fear to which at first I had no idea at all but as he continued his speech I was able to get a clear understanding of how the words connect with one another. The way he connected these words to inform the graduates of how they should live their lives, “live your life by having fear at your back and faith in front of you.” I found that very inspiring and as a life lesson that I can go back to if I see that I am having difficulties living out my life. During the speech, Hanks brought some humor to the crowd by doing the things that usually should be done while being at a graduation such as turning off electric devices. I quite didn’t understand why was he trying to be humorous throughout the speech but later on the purpose of his humor would be revealed. The line that stood out to me the most was, “Fear and faith are co-existing, so it's up to you to give chance to which one.” What Hanks was trying to say was that one must have to experience fear and faith in the situation that they think is best fitting for them. 2. Bill Gates ( 2007 Harvard University) When one hears about Bill Gates there is usually two things that come to mind, he is the founder of the first software company in the world and is currently the richest person in the world. However, What some might not know about Gates is that is a college dropout, in the speech it was based mostly on him dropping out of Harvard and making it a joke out of the decision that he decided to. By far the line from the speech that was hilarious was “For my part, I’m just happy that the Crimson has called me “Harvard’s most successful dropout.” I guess that makes me valedictorian of my own special class … I did the best of everyone who failed. Bill Gates didn’t seem that ashamed at all to embrace that he failed in his laugh and was very aware of the flaw that occurred in his life. What I got out of that line is that it is ok to be aware that you failed at something but, you must learn how to move on with falling and do something that can make up for it. 1. Steve Jobs (2005 Stanford University) After watching this speech about more than 5 times just so I can hear Job’s wonderful inspiring words and life lessons, to me this one of the commencement speeches of all time. This speech is the speech that I recommend you to take some time out of your day and watch this glorious speech as after watching you will feel inspiration and motivation. There are some much wonderful things about this speech that a huge list can make listing of the greatness of the speech however that would take me forever as I won’t want to forget things on the list so I’ll just keep short and straight to the point. This speech had such a tremendous flow, that is needed in order to keep thoughts and ideas in order. Jobs gave the graduates a sum story of his life mentioning about his early life being adopted by parents who had a college education, starting up Apple Inc with Steve Wozniak, being fired by Apple then later coming back to them. What makes this a unique speech that one would assume that he would talk about the message that he wish to give the graduating class of 2005, however he saved that till the end of his speech which makes sense as it saves the best for last. This speech had tons of lines that were inspirational and motivating, the line that stood out to me the most was, “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” This was the best way to end of the speech.
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