That’s Life: Graduation advice

For about as long as I’ve been writing this column, I’ve been dispensing advice to graduates. I dunno, after taking a look around at the state of the world, I sorta feel responsible. So I hereby rescind my previous advice to fight for your right to party or party like it’s 1999.

Something I was right about is anyone can grow up to be president. So there’s hope. Sorta.

One thing I don’t think I’ve ever advised graduates to do, is really important. Vote. Vote in every election, every time. And make sure you understand what you’re voting for or against. Do your homework—and homework isn’t 30-second campaign commercials. Trust me, the guy wearing a flannel shirt standing in a billowing field of wheat probably doesn’t know an air seeder from a manure spreader, and in the case of the later, it’s ironic.

The bottom line is, nothing happens in this country without the expressed will of the people. And when the people are silent, bad things happen. After love, voting is the greatest form of expression ever invented. Followed by music, prose, art and baseball. Vote. Even if you’re on the losing side of an issue, that vote sends a signal. Change is a process. Life involves compromise. None of us is so right in our convictions that they can’t be improved upon.

I had a brief conversation the other day with a nice young man— he might have been 16—and during a bit of friendly verbal jousting, he said that he was a member of a particular political party. No you’re not, kid. You’re too busy trying to figure out how you’re going to lose your virginity, and if she tells you she’s a member of the Green Party, you’re going to start dressing like a leprechaun.

Live a little. Experience has a way of hardening or softening our beliefs. Even changing them. Trust the evidence life offers.

Anyway, political parties are a bad idea because both sides always try to define who everyone in the other party is. Lazy socialists. Heartless conservatives. But people are more nuanced than that. Life is more nuanced than that. You can be a fiscal conservative and a social liberal. You can be an atheist and spend your life doing good works. You can be a zealot and leverage your beliefs to justify just about anything.

Be an independent. In doing so, your generation may have a shot at fixing things my generation screwed up. The irony of a Baby Boomer offering this advice is not lost on me. But in my defense, you’ll find that the marginal players are sometimes the best coaches. They’ve learned from their own mistakes and shortcomings. We’re graduates of the School of Hard Knocks. What you learn is, just about anything can be overcome. You can grow from adversity. Or you can be embittered.

Despite the chaos my previous advice to graduates has created, I’m sticking with some of it. It’s like trickle-down economics. It’ll work if you wait long enough or if you click your ruby slippers three times. One of those.

Here goes... The most important thing is to do something you love. You see, our society has become so materialistic, the goal has become wealth. Shouldn’t the goal be happiness? Misguided people spend their lives chasing wealth, doing something they hate for decades, with the idea that when they’ve amassed enough money, they’ll do the things that’ll make them happy.

Live a rich life along the way. When you love what you do, it’s not work. If you can, work for yourself. It’s about freedom. But before then, when you’re working for someone else, do the job so well that when you leave, they really miss you.

Let debt be a tool, not your master. Things have a way of owning you.

Recognize opportunity when it presents itself. Seek out beauty in museums, at concerts, or in your back yard. Plant a tree.

It’s an incredible epoch with incredible challenges. Sometimes it may seem overwhelming. Bad news and uncertainty. Then, if you can, step out under the stars or into the sunshine and breathe. You’ll find things are just fine where you are. In fact, it’s glorious.

Believe. Negative thoughts manifest negative outcomes. Think positive. It works.

Now, go get ‘em.