“
Your need for acceptance can make you invisible in this world. Don't let anything stand in the way of the light that shines through this form. Risk being seen in all of your glory.
”
”
Jim Carrey
“
Alphabet: a symbolic system used in algebra, with applications that have yet to be discovered by dyslexics and two thirds of college graduates.
”
”
Bauvard (Some Inspiration for the Overenthusiastic)
“
I understood what he was doing, that he had spent four years fulfilling the absurd and tedious duty of graduating from college and now he was emancipated from that world of abstraction, false security, parents, and material excess.
”
”
Jon Krakauer (Into the Wild)
“
When we graduate from childhood into adulthood, we're thrown into this confusing, Cthulhu-like miasma of life, filled with social and career problems, all with branching choices and no correct answers.
”
”
Felicia Day (You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost))
“
Just because you don't know what you want yet, it doesn't mean that there's nothing to want.
”
”
Emily Henry (The Love That Split the World)
“
Just about a month from now I'm set adrift, with a diploma for a sail and lots of nerve for oars.
”
”
Richard Halliburton
“
The time to lead is now.
”
”
Joelle Charbonneau (Graduation Day (The Testing, #3))
“
Develop and protect a moral sensibility and demonstrate the character to apply it. Dream big. Work hard. Think for yourself. Love everything you love, everyone you love, with all your might. And do so, please, with a sense of urgency, for every tick of the clock subtracts from fewer and fewer.
”
”
David McCullough Jr.
“
I'd been rejected, but I was still in love, so I decided to start over.
”
”
Steve Jobs (Steve Jobs Graduation Speech)
“
Everything's always ending. But everything's always beginning, too
”
”
Patrick Ness
“
We were lying on our backs in the foothills, watching the sky and making a list called "Never." All the things we would never do. Let's never get married. Let's never get fat. Let's never sleep with a married man. Let's never stop being students, even after we graduate. Let's never get dull-eyed and ironic. Let's never get stuck in a rut-- or trapped in a life we didn't choose. Let's never grow bitter.
”
”
Danzy Senna (Symptomatic)
“
The world is waiting for us to graduate from ourselves.
”
”
Shannon L. Alder
“
If you fail an examination, it means you have not yet master the subject. With diligent study and understanding, you will succeed in passing the exams.
”
”
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
“
She might not have felt everything she had felt in those lives, but she had the capability. She might have missed those particular opportunities that led her to become an Olympic swimmer, or traveller, or a vineyard owner, or a rock star, or a planet-saving glaciologist, or a Cambridge graduate, or a mother, or million other things, but she was still in in some way all of those people. They were all her. She could of been all those amazing people, and that wasn't depressing, as she had thought. Not at all. It was inspiring. Because now she saw the kinds of things she could do when she put herself to work.
”
”
Matt Haig (The Midnight Library)
“
So, if she’s the only one in the class of ’22 who’s really out for now, if her existence can provide cover for half her graduating class to stand up for something without saying things about themselves they can’t yet say, that’s enough. That’s plenty.
”
”
Casey McQuiston (I Kissed Shara Wheeler)
“
Character is a course, finish it.
”
”
Mac Canoza
“
The memory of sacred moment is unforgettable.
”
”
Lailah Gifty Akita
“
Yes, we know you are a graduate with PhD. But when was the last time you chase after a book shop to buy and read a book at your own volition to obtain an information for your self-development? Knowledge doesn't chase people; people chase knowledge and information.
”
”
Israelmore Ayivor
“
Mari [Mary Magdalene] possessed a remarkably coherent understanding of what following The Way [Rahasya] meant. She believed that this spiritual philosophy taught that the world represented Man's mystic school from whence each person ultimately graduated by reaching the Enlightened State. Therefore, according to this spiritual discipline, human suffering is very subjective and manifested itself according to every person's personal karma or attitude to life. This meant that every life a person experienced imparted a certain number of spiritual lessons that may not have been experienced before in other lives. Ultimately, every experience could be relived and bring about spiritual growth, assisting the individual to move continually closer to the Enlightened State.
”
”
Anton Sammut (The Secret Gospel of Jesus, AD 0-78)
“
Authentic inspiration endows individuals with mental or spiritual energy which they are then able to transform into positive action. It can make all the difference between a man, woman, or child allowing despair to permanently paralyze any dreams they may have for their lives, or, exercising sufficient strength of will to make those dreams a reality.
”
”
Aberjhani (Journey through the Power of the Rainbow: Quotations from a Life Made Out of Poetry)
“
It is impossible to graduate from the University of Life with no scars.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
Were these boys in their right minds? Here were two boys with good intellect, one eighteen and one nineteen. They had all the prospects that life could hold out for any of the young; one a graduate of Chicago and another of Ann Arbor; one who had passed his examination for the Harvard Law School and was about to take a trip in Europe,--another who had passed at Ann Arbor, the youngest in his class, with three thousand dollars in the bank. Boys who never knew what it was to want a dollar; boys who could reach any position that was to boys of that kind to reach; boys of distinguished and honorable families, families of wealth and position, with all the world before them. And they gave it all up for nothing, for nothing! They took a little companion of one of them, on a crowded street, and killed him, for nothing, and sacrificed everything that could be of value in human life upon the crazy scheme of a couple of immature lads.
Now, your Honor, you have been a boy; I have been a boy. And we have known other boys. The best way to understand somebody else is to put yourself in his place.
Is it within the realm of your imagination that a boy who was right, with all the prospects of life before him, who could choose what he wanted, without the slightest reason in the world would lure a young companion to his death, and take his place in the shadow of the gallows?
...No one who has the process of reasoning could doubt that a boy who would do that is not right.
How insane they are I care not, whether medically or legally. They did not reason; they could not reason; they committed the most foolish, most unprovoked, most purposeless, most causeless act that any two boys ever committed, and they put themselves where the rope is dangling above their heads....
Why did they kill little Bobby Franks?
Not for money, not for spite; not for hate. They killed him as they might kill a spider or a fly, for the experience. They killed him because they were made that way. Because somewhere in the infinite processes that go to the making up of the boy or the man something slipped, and those unfortunate lads sit here hated, despised, outcasts, with the community shouting for their blood.
. . . I know, Your Honor, that every atom of life in all this universe is bound up together. I know that a pebble cannot be thrown into the ocean without disturbing every drop of water in the sea. I know that every life is inextricably mixed and woven with every other life. I know that every influence, conscious and unconscious, acts and reacts on every living organism, and that no one can fix the blame. I know that all life is a series of infinite chances, which sometimes result one way and sometimes another. I have not the infinite wisdom that can fathom it, neither has any other human brain
”
”
Clarence Darrow (Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom)
“
You wish you could’ve learned to play piano. You wish you could’ve started drawing when you were young. You wish you could’ve figured out who you wanted to be before you graduated college. You wish you could’ve learned to love yourself sooner. Well you know what? You didn’t. And that’s just something you’re going to have to learn to deal with. But just because you didn’t do it sooner, doesn’t mean you can’t start now.
”
”
Daren Colbert
“
Travel is rebellion in its purest form.
- we follow our heart
- we free ourselves of labels
- we lose control willingly
- we trade a role for reality
- we love the unfamiliar
- we trust strangers
- we own only what we can carry
- we search for better questions, not answers
- we truly graduate
- we, sometimes, choose never to come back.
”
”
Anonymous
“
When I pass-away (as each of us must) release a balloon into the sky with ashes attached, to celebrate my graduation... My graduation from this life to the next.
”
”
Raymond D. Longoria Jr.
“
Computers themselves, and software yet to be developed, will revolutionize the way we learn.
”
”
Steve Jobs (Steve Jobs Graduation Speech)
“
If I don’t succeed, I will try again and never stop trying.
When I succeed, I will again explore new opportunities.
”
”
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
“
Jahan took a breath and composed herself. “When I was a little sort of girl and I would see a gentleman or a lady with good, clean clothes I would run and hide my face. But after I graduated from the Korphe School, I felt a big change in my life. I felt I was clear and clean and could go before anybody and discuss anything. And now that I am already in Skardu, I feel that anything is possible. I don’t want to be just a health worker. I want to be such a woman that I can start a hospital and be an executive, and look over all the health problems of all the women in the Braldu. I want to become a very famous woman of this area,” Jahan said, twirling the hem of her maroon silk headscarf around her finger as she peered out the window, past a soccer player sprinting through the drizzle toward a makeshift goal built of stacked stones, searching for the exact word with which to envision her future. “I want to be a… ‘Superlady’” she said, grinning defiantly, daring anyone, any man, to tell her she couldn’t. p. 313
”
”
Greg Mortenson (Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time)
“
Not easy having her for a mom.
When did her ambitions die? If I had to guess, the day she graduated from Martha Stewart’s School for Stepford Housewives. Never inspirational, she’s more of an embarrassment for an already unpopular kid like me. What can I say? I’ve got plain-and-ordinary running through my veins. Maybe that’s why I can’t shake this stench of unremarkable. It goes back generations.
”
”
Michael Benzehabe (Zonked Out: The Teen Psychologist of San Marcos Who Killed Her Santa Claus and Found the Blue-Black Edge of the Love Universe)
“
For the records I lose graduation exam three times. Cause there was this one jutsu there always on the exam. It trip me every time. It was one jutsu I couldn’t master. Yes, my clones were pathetic, I flown the shadow clone jutsu every time. So don't come whining to ne this destiny stuff and stop trying to tell me you can't change what your are. You can do it too, cause after all unlike me you are not a failure.
”
”
Masashi Kishimoto
“
A student graduates when he learns how to swim, but a master graduates when he learns how to walk on water.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
Attention, if sudden and close, graduates into surprise; and this into astonishment; and this into stupefied amazement.
”
”
Charles Darwin
“
Success is the end product.
”
”
Lailah Gifty Akita
“
Do you know what the most fun moments are? When recent graduates visit us as part of their training. They were taught exactly what the industry wants. They expect a bunch of long haired dreamers who say 'peace'. But on the first evening with them we start with calculating the profits of their models and compare it to our model. Then they realize that what they learned at school is nothing compared to what there is to know.
”
”
Peter Wohlleben
“
I don’t care what college you graduated from, how many degrees you may have, how much money you may be making, how pretty you think you are. All of that means absolutely nothing if you don’t have God in your life.
”
”
Marita L. Kinney (Christian Memoirs: The Unspoken Walk: A Inspirational Christian Memoirs)
“
I regularly tell our seminary students that if I happen to visit the church in which one of them serves, I will not ask first, “Is this man a good preacher?” Rather, first of all I will ask the secretaries, office staff, janitors, and cleaners what it is like to work for this pastor. I will ask, “What kind of man is he? Is he a servant? Is he demanding and harsh, or his he patient, kind, and forbearing as a man in authority?” One of our graduates may preach great sermons, but if he is a pain to work for, then you know he will cause major problems in any congregation. Leaders in the church are required by Scripture to set an example in the areas of love, kindness, gentleness, patience, and forbearance before they are appointed to preach, teach, and rule. If we obediently require these attitudes and character traits of our leaders, what will our “new community” look like
”
”
Jerram Barrs
“
So in my uncertainty, I went to graduate school and their it all happened
”
”
Edward Torvalds
“
Take control of your future by taking a choice of starting it right now.
”
”
Oscar Auliq-Ice
“
With success, if you don't plan and just take each day as it comes, there will come failure.
”
”
Oscar Auliq-Ice
“
Graduation is not the terminus of your experience; it is the terminal of your success.
”
”
Christian J. Dolores
“
Stay hungry, stay foolish
”
”
Steve Jobs (Steve Jobs Graduation Speech)
“
Tricks of the trade are not taught in a classroom, but through hard-learnt, hard-earned experience.
”
”
Rashmi Bansal (ARISE, AWAKE
THE INSPIRING STORIES OF
YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS WHO
GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE
INTO A BUSINESS OF THEIR OWN)
“
Dream big, ideate karo, there are people with funds, funds is never a challenge.
”
”
Rashmi Bansal (ARISE, AWAKE
THE INSPIRING STORIES OF
YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS WHO
GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE
INTO A BUSINESS OF THEIR OWN)
“
A good idea is like a magnet, which will attract the right investor.
”
”
Rashmi Bansal (ARISE, AWAKE
THE INSPIRING STORIES OF
YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS WHO
GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE
INTO A BUSINESS OF THEIR OWN)
“
I've told my children that when I die, to release balloons in the sky to celebrate that I graduated. For me, death is a graduation
”
”
Greg Laurie (As It Is in Heaven: How Eternity Brings Focus to What Really Matters)
“
The Yale graduate who had refused to read outside the course curriculum (the future Pres. Taft) suddenly found himself inspired.
”
”
Doris Kearns Goodwin (The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism)
“
Share your mistakes with the world because you once wished that someone would have done the same.
”
”
Amara Leggett (The Strategic Mind of A Young Legend: A College Graduate at 16 Changes The World One Word At A Time)
“
Find and follow your own trail...To stay on your own path, be aware of yourself and surroundings. Trust that you will find your way, and don't hold yourself responsible for the trails or trials of others.
”
”
Sabrina Moyle (Escargot for It!: A Snail’s Guide to Finding Your Own Trail & Shell-ebrating Success (Inspirational Illustrated Pun Book, Funny Graduation Gift))
“
Back in SEAL training, I loved when people froze up and quit. I felt it elevated me in some way, but that was ego-driven immaturity and poor leadership. These days, I consider my business to make everyone better, no matter the job or situation. During my interview with the North Peace Smokejumpers, I was asked to describe my best quality.
"If you hire me," I said, "everyone in my class will graduate. [...]
”
”
David Goggins (Never Finished)
“
What I’m about to tell you,” Elliott told me, “ninety-nine percent of people in the world will never understand.” For the first time all week, it was just the two of us. Elliott had told Austin he wanted to talk to me one-on-one. We were standing on a rooftop lounge during sunset, looking out at the Manhattan skyline. “You see, most people live a linear life,” he continued. “They go to college, get an internship, graduate, land a job, get a promotion, save up for a vacation each year, work toward their next promotion, and they just do that their whole lives. Their lives move step by step, slowly and predictably. “But successful people don’t buy into that model. They opt into an exponential life. Rather than going step by step, they skip steps. People say that you first need to ‘pay your dues’ and get years of experience before you can go out on your own and get what you truly want. Society feeds us this lie that you need to do x, y, and z before you can achieve your dream. It’s bullshit. The only person whose permission you need to live an exponential life is your own. “Sometimes an exponential life lands in your lap, like with a child prodigy. But most of the time, for people like you and me, we have to seize it for ourselves. If you actually want to make a difference in the world, if you want to live a life of inspiration, adventure, and wild success—you need to grab on to that exponential life—and hold on to it with all you’ve got.
”
”
Alex Banayan (The Third Door: The Wild Quest to Uncover How the World's Most Successful People Launched Their Careers)
“
Imagine if we taught baseball the way we teach science. Until they were twelve, children would read about baseball technique and history, and occasionally hear inspirational stories of the great baseball players. They would fill out quizzes about baseball rules. College undergraduates might be allowed, under strict supervision, to reproduce famous historic baseball plays. But only in the second or third year of graduate school, would they, at last, actually get to play a game. If we taught baseball this way, we might expect about the same degree of success in the Little League World Series that we currently see in our children’s science scores.
”
”
Alison Gopnik (The Gardener and the Carpenter: What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us About the Relationship Between Parents and Children)
“
The biggest surprise-- and it came as a great revalation-- was understanding that whatever happens, no matter how catastrophic or wonderful, it's just another patch. There are times when something special happens: a marriage, graduation, or the birth of a child. There's no denying it's a glorious patch. It might even be a red patch-- the one that pulls the whole quilt together. But I couldn't stop repeating, "It's just another patch.
”
”
Sue Bender (Plain and Simple: A Woman's Journey to the Amish)
“
I also don't think that parents should pay for their children's graduate or law school. Helping a student with a four-year bachelor's degree is very generous, but an advanced degree should be considered a personal responsibility. That will ensure that the coursework is taken very seriously and makes the young person take ownership of their degree. and when they graduate, it's a shared accomplishment that the whole family can be proud of. But do not encourage graduate school just for graduate school's sake. Work experience is much more valuable if the decision come down to that.
”
”
Dana Perino (And the Good News Is...: Lessons and Advice from the Bright Side)
“
In India, if you want a successful company, you have to give at least 75% of your time to sales. When I say sales, I mean ‘face to face’ meetings. Look at Justdial, Naukri or Zomato – they have all made money through feet on street. Stay grounded and stay focused, automatically, success will come to you.
”
”
Rashmi Bansal (ARISE, AWAKE
THE INSPIRING STORIES OF
YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS WHO
GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE
INTO A BUSINESS OF THEIR OWN)
“
Perhaps because of this, he felt he always knew who and what he was, which is why, as he moved farther and then further away from the ranch and his childhood, he felt very little pressure to change or reinvent himself. He was a guest at college, a guest in graduate school, and now he was a guest in New York, a guest in the lives of the beautiful and thhe rich.He would never try to pretend he was born to such things, because he knew he wasn't; he was a ranch hand's son from western Wyoming, and his leaving didn't mean that everything he had once been was erased, written over by time and experiences and the proximity of money.
”
”
Hanya Yanagihara (A Little Life)
“
Most of the white kids in my classes had grown up in stable neighborhoods and had graduated from good schools. They came to Pitt with a natural confidence and expectations of high achievement, and it was clear to me from the very start that they had been prepared, in ways that were beyond me, to make their dreams come true.
”
”
Bill Strickland (Make the Impossible Possible: One Man's Crusade to Inspire Others to Dream Bigger and Achieve the Extraordinary)
“
9. Your Photo Album Many people have a photo album. In it they keep memories of the happiest of times. There may be a photo of them playing by the beach when they were very young. There may be the picture with their proud parents at their graduation ceremony. There will be many shots of their wedding that captures their love at one of its highest points. And there will be holiday snapshots too. But you will never find in your album any photographs of miserable moments of your life. Absent is the photo of you outside the principal’s office at school. Missing is any photo of you studying hard late into the night for your exams. No one that I know has a picture of their divorce in their album, nor one of them in a hospital bed terribly sick, nor stuck in busy traffic on the way to work on a Monday morning! Such depressing shots never find their way into anyone’s photo album. Yet there is another photo album that we keep in our heads called our memory. In that album, we include so many negative photographs. There you find so many snapshots of insulting arguments, many pictures of the times when you were so badly let down, and several montages of the occasions where you were treated cruelly. There are surprisingly few photos in that album of happy moments. This is crazy! So let’s do a purge of the photo album in our head. Delete the uninspiring memories. Trash them. They do not belong in this album. In their place, put the same sort of memories that you have in a real photo album. Paste in the happiness of when you made up with your partner, when there was that unexpected moment of real kindness, or whenever the clouds parted and the sun shone with extraordinary beauty. Keep those photos in your memory. Then when you have a few spare moments, you will find yourself turning its pages with a smile, or even with laughter.
”
”
Ajahn Brahm (Don't Worry, Be Grumpy: Inspiring Stories for Making the Most of Each Moment)
“
You are the TEACHER. Some people are so stuck on what you did in the past, that they don't realize that you forgave yourself, matured, and graduated from what happened.
Yet here they are stuck on that memory..wondering how you were able to move on. Time waits for no one and life keeps going.
When haters try to remind you of your past, starve their attention with silence..Just realize that you don't have time to supervise adults. You got things to do and individuals to mentor.
What was designed to crush you just strengthened your walk, put confidence in your talk, and encouraged you to be content with You.
Their presence or opinion is only entertainment in the bleachers, tolerated decorations on the wall, and the uncelebrated clown at your events.
Remember you are the teacher and they are the student...take charge of your classroom!!
”
”
Kendricks Fields (The Table Between Us)
“
A recent event in our family showed us even more how fleeting physical perfection is. Our oldest son had a brain aneurism rupture two days before his high-school graduation. For nineteen days, my son, who planned to attend the Naval Academy, clung to life in a neuro-intensive care unit. Thankfully, he recovered. During his recovery, after waking from a coma, we asked him if there was anything he wanted us to bring him from home. “Just bring Grace,” he said.
”
”
Theresa Thomas (Big Hearted: Inspiring Stories from Everyday Families)
“
Even Europe joined in.
With the most modest friendliness, explaining that they wished not to intrude on American domestic politics but only to express personal admiration for that great Western advocate of peace and prosperity, Berzelius Windrip, there came representatives of certain foreign powers, lecturing throughout the land: General Balbo, so popular here because of his leadership of the flight from Italy to Chicago in 1933; a scholar who, though he now lived in Germany and was an inspiration to all patriotic leaders of German Recovery, yet had graduated from Harvard University and had been the most popular piano-player in his class—namely, Dr. Ernst (Putzi) Hanfstängl; and Great Britain's lion of diplomacy, the Gladstone of the 1930's, the handsome and gracious Lord Lossiemouth who, as Prime Minister, had been known as the Rt. Hon. Ramsay MacDonald, P.C.
All three of them were expensively entertained by the wives of manufacturers, and they persuaded many millionaires who, in the refinement of wealth, had considered Buzz vulgar, that actually he was the world's one hope of efficient international commerce.
”
”
Sinclair Lewis (It Can't Happen Here)
“
As graduate programs are supposed to do, this one stressed excellence: the values that defined it, the quality of work that embodied it. They were inspiring to me. But they came in a package—from my vantage point as a solo black, the package of an all-white program. Thus some of the incidental features of being white academics—the preference for dressing down, the love of seemingly all things European, a preference for dry wines, little knowledge of black life or popular culture—got implicitly associated with excellence. Excellence seemed to have an identity, which I didn’t entirely have and worried that I couldn’t get.
”
”
Claude M. Steele (Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us (Issues of Our Time))
“
Only date people who respect your standards and make you a better person when you’re with them. Consider the message of the movie A Walk to Remember. Landon Carter is the reckless leader who is skating through high school on his good looks and bravado. He and his popular friends at Beaufort High publicly ridicule everyone who doesn’t fit in, including the unfashionable Jamie Sullivan, who wears the same sweater day after day and gives free tutoring lessons to struggling students. By accident, events thrust Landon into Jamie’s world and he can’t help but notice that Jamie’s different. She doesn’t care about conforming and fitting in with the popular kids. Landon’s amazed at how sure of herself she seems and asks, “Don’t you care what people think about you?” As he spends more time with her, he realizes she has more freedom than he does because she isn’t controlled by the opinions of others, as he is. Soon, despite their intentions not to, they have fallen in love and Landon has to choose between his status at Beaufort...and Jamie. “This girl’s changed you,” his best friend yells, “and you don’t even know it.” Landon admits, “She has faith in me. She wants me to be better.” He chooses her. After high school graduation, Jamie reveals to Landon that she’s dying of leukemia. During her final months, Landon does all he can to make her dreams come true, including marrying her in the same church her mother and father were married in. They spend a wonderful summer together, truly in love. Despite Jamie’s dream for a miracle, she dies. Heartbroken, but inspired by Jamie’s belief in him, Landon works hard to go to medical school. But he laments to her father that he couldn’t fulfill her last desire, to see a miracle. Jamie’s father assures him that Jamie did see a miracle before she died, for someone’s heart had truly changed. And it was his. Now that’s a movie to remember! Never apologize for having high standards and don’t ever lower your standards to please someone else.
”
”
Sean Covey (The 6 Most Important Decisions You'll Ever Make: A Guide for Teens)
“
In a longitudinal study of college students, freshmen were evaluated for fixed mindsets or growth mindsets and then followed across their four years of enrollment. When the students with fixed mindsets encountered academic challenges such as daunting projects or low grades, they gave up, while the students with growth mindsets responded by working harder or trying new strategies. Rather than strengthening their skills and toughening their resolve, four years of college left the students with fixed mindsets feeling less confident. The feelings they most associated with school were distress, shame, and upset. Those with growth mindsets performed better in school overall and, at graduation time, they reported feeling confident, determined, enthusiastic, inspired, and strong.
”
”
Meg Jay (The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter--And How to Make the Most of Them Now)
“
I wondered if we would have to choose music for his funeral or would we get to celebrate his high school graduation, his wedding, or even his next birthday."
"I needed to focus on the daily victories without peering too far ahead to a potential dismal future for my beautiful boy."
"God didn’t do this to us, but I do know He was using it for His glory."
"Yes, there has been loss, but right behind it come gifts we would never have expected amid such trials: peace in the midst of chaos, joy within sorrow, and even a path of light surrounded by darkness."
"I was not happy, but still, I had a great deal of joy."
"When I focus on all He has given me, it’s difficult to see what I don’t have."
"As uncomfortable as I often am through this journey, I welcome the chance to honor God through it."
"I am so thankful God meets us where we are, then walks us the rest of the way."
"While I wholeheartedly believed God would put the pieces back together, I also knew He might not put them together the same way they were before.
”
”
Christina Custodio (When God Changed His Mind)
“
I would like to crush the incredibly infantile notion, that entails everything a woman does, is in the seeking for approval. A woman shares a selfie: she is looking for approval; a woman smiles at you: she is looking for your approval; a woman speaks her knowledge: she wants to be smart in order to gain your approval; a woman graduates at NASA: she wants to gain the approval of society (no, it cannot be that she simply dreams of landing on the Moon); a woman takes all her clothes off in her photos: she wants to gain the approval of men. Why is it that everything a woman does, says, shows and thinks; is assumed to be in the seeking of approval? The only time a woman is not seen in such a light, is when: she is silent, her body is covered up, she goes around meekly like a lamb or stands idly like a fading flower. A woman is a person who may do, say, think, feel, and show, as she wishes to, without any of that having to do with any man or any other woman around her. Yes, it is true that no person is an island, but what is also true, is that, every person is a living being capable of performing, acting, thinking, showing and feeling, entirely unto their own will and for their own purposes.
”
”
C. JoyBell C.
“
Even if there is no connection between diversity and international influence, some people would argue that immigration brings cultural enrichment. This may seem to be an attractive argument, but the culture of Americans remains almost completely untouched by millions of Hispanic and Asian immigrants. They may have heard of Cinco de Mayo or Chinese New Year, but unless they have lived abroad or have studied foreign affairs, the white inhabitants of Los Angeles are likely to have only the most superficial knowledge of Mexico or China despite the presence of many foreigners.
Nor is it immigrants who introduce us to Cervantes, Puccini, Alexander Dumas, or Octavio Paz. Real high culture crosses borders by itself, not in the back pockets of tomato pickers, refugees, or even the most accomplished immigrants. What has Yo-Yo Ma taught Americans about China? What have we learned from Seiji Ozawa or Ichiro about Japan? Immigration and the transmission of culture are hardly the same thing. Nearly every good-sized American city has an opera company, but that does not require Italian immigrants.
Miami is now nearly 70 percent Hispanic, but what, in the way of authentic culture enrichment, has this brought the city? Are the art galleries, concerts, museums, and literature of Los Angeles improved by diversity? Has the culture of Detroit benefited from a majority-black population? If immigration and diversity bring cultural enrichment, why do whites move out of those very parts of the country that are being “enriched”?
It is true that Latin American immigration has inspired more American school children to study Spanish, but fewer now study French, German, or Latin. If anything, Hispanic immigration reduces what little linguistic diversity is to be found among native-born Americans. [...] [M]any people study Spanish, not because they love Hispanic culture or Spanish literature but for fear they may not be able to work in America unless they speak the language of Mexico.
Another argument in favor of diversity is that it is good for people—especially young people —to come into contact with people unlike themselves because they will come to understand and appreciate each other. Stereotyped and uncomplimentary views about other races or cultures are supposed to crumble upon contact. This, of course, is just another version of the “contact theory” that was supposed to justify school integration. Do ex-cons and the graduates—and numerous dropouts—of Los Angeles high schools come away with a deep appreciation of people of other races? More than half a century ago, George Orwell noted that:
'During the war of 1914-18 the English working class were in contact with foreigners to an extent that is rarely possible. The sole result was that they brought back a hatred of all Europeans, except the Germans, whose courage they admired.
”
”
Jared Taylor (White Identity: Racial Consciousness in the 21st Century)
“
My wife and I have had the joy of working with thousands of college students and have engaged in countless conversations with them about what they’re going to do as they approach graduation. Up to that point, they had felt safe and secure knowing they were simply coming back to campus for another year of school. But now that they were being kicked out of the nest, they felt a strong need to pray, get counsel, pursue options, and make decisions. As I chat with these twenty-one to twenty-five-year olds, I love to pose an unusual question. “If you could do anything with your life, what would you want to do? Just for a moment, free your mind from school loans or parents’ wishes or boyfriend pressure. Put no constraints or parameters on it. Write down what you would love to do with your life if you got to choose.” There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart. Pursue those! Most have never allowed their mind or heart to think that broadly or freely. They’ve been conditioned to operate under some set of exterior expectations or self-imposed limitations. A few have sat there so long staring at that blank sheet, I thought they might pass out! They finally get an inspirational thought, and begin enthusiastically scribbling something. They finish with a smile, pass it over to me, and I take a look. Nine out of ten times I pass it back to them, look deep into their eyes and quietly say, “Go do this.” There is a reason they feel so excited about the specific direction, cause, or vocation they wrote down. It’s because God is the One who put it in their heart. “Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). “Are you delighting yourself in the Lord?” I ask the graduating senior. “I am certainly seeking to,” they reply. “Well then,” I respond, “you’ve just written down the desires of your heart. So, go for it.” Too simplistic or idealistic? I probably do have a more “wide-open” view of helping a person discover God’s direction for their life, but I believe this exercise strikes at the core of understanding what each of us were designed to do.
”
”
Steve Shadrach (The God Ask: A Fresh, Biblical Approach to Personal Support Raising)
“
From the Author Matthew 16:25 says, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” This is a perfect picture of the life of Nate Saint; he gave up his life so God could reveal a greater glory in him and through him. I first heard the story of Operation Auca when I was eight years old, and ever since then I have been inspired by Nate’s commitment to the cause of Christ. He was determined to carry out God’s will for his life in spite of fears, failures, and physical challenges. For several years of my life, I lived and ministered with my parents who were missionaries on the island of Jamaica. My experiences during those years gave me a passion for sharing the stories of those who make great sacrifices to carry the gospel around the world. As I wrote this book, learning more about Nate Saint’s life—seeing his spirit and his struggles—was both enlightening and encouraging to me. It is my prayer that this book will provide a window into Nate Saint’s vision—his desires, dreams, and dedication. I pray his example will convince young people to step out of their comfort zones and wholeheartedly seek God’s will for their lives. That is Nate Saint’s legacy: changing the world for Christ, one person and one day at a time. Nate Saint Timeline 1923 Nate Saint born. 1924 Stalin rises to power in Russia. 1930 Nate’s first flight, aged 7 with his brother, Sam. 1933 Nate’s second flight with his brother, Sam. 1936 Nate made his public profession of faith. 1937 Nate develops bone infection. 1939 World War II begins. 1940 Winston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister. 1941 Nate graduates from Wheaton College. Nate takes first flying lesson. Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. 1942 Nate’s induction into the Army Air Corps. 1943 Nate learns he is to be transferred to Indiana. 1945 Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan by U.S. 1946 Nate discharged from the Army. 1947 Nate accepted for Wheaton College. 1948 Nate and Marj are married and begin work in Eduador. Nate crashes his plane in Quito. 1949 Nate’s first child, Kathy, is born. Germany divided into East and West. 1950 Korean War begins. 1951 Nate’s second child, Stephen, is born. 1952 The Saint family return home to the U.S. 1953 Nate comes down with pneumonia. Nate and Henry fly to Ecuador. 1954 The first nuclear-powered submarine is launched. Nate’s third child, Phillip, is born. 1955 Nate is joined by Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Peter Fleming and Roger Youderian. Nate spots an Auca village for the first time. Operation Auca commences. 1956 The group sets up camp four miles from the Auca territory. Nate and the group are killed on “Palm Beach”.
”
”
Nancy Drummond (Nate Saint: Operation Auca (Torchbearers))
“
He began
to think, here, of local intellectuals such as the pulavar and of his friends
in the Readers’ Circle, as keys to this side of the struggle. That is, he began
to argue that if one viewed such intellectuals as ‘folk repositories’ of local
knowledge, then it was obvious that they had a dual potential. Dual because,
on the one hand, such intellectuals could be (and mostly were) co-opted
by the hegemonic ‘web’ as teachers, graduate students, journalists, and so
forth, in which case they merely, ‘organically,’ reproduced the overmastering
‘web’; yet, on the other hand, they could become (to their peril and inherent
risk) the central sources of inspiration and knowledge for the production
of a counter-hegemonic revolution. He began to imagine this duality as a
singular, existential choice open to such intellectuals, to all intellectuals, and
to himself.
”
”
Mark P. Whitaker (Learning Politics From Sivaram: The Life and Death of a Revolutionary Tamil Journalist in Sri Lanka (Anthropology, Culture and Society))
“
With the decline of the United States as the world’s leader, I find it important to look around our globe for intelligent people who have the depth of understanding that could perhaps chart a way to the future. One such person is Bernard-Henri Lévy a French philosopher who was born in Béni Saf, French Algeria on November 5, 1948. . The Boston Globe has said that he is "perhaps the most prominent intellectual in France today." Although his published work and political activism has fueled controversies, he invokes thought provoking insight into today’s controversial world and national views.
As a young man and Zionist he was a war correspondent for “Combat” newspaper for the French Underground. Following the war Bernard attended Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris and in 1968; he graduated with a degree in philosophy from the famous École Normale Supérieure. This was followed by him traveling to India where he joined the International Brigade to aid Bangladeshi freedom fighters.
Returning to Paris, Bernard founded the ‘New Philosophers School.’ At that time he wrote books bringing to light the dark side of French history. Although some of his books were criticized for their journalistic character and unbalanced approach to French history, but most respected French academics took a serious look at his position that Marxism was inherently corrupt. Some of his musings include the predicament of the Kurds and the Shame of Aleppo, referring to the plight of the children in Aleppo during the bloody Syrian civil war. Not everyone agrees with Bernard, as pointed out by an article “Why Does Everyone Hate Bernard-Henri Lévy?” However he is credited with nearly single handedly toppling Muammar Gaddafi. His reward was that in 2008 he was targeted for assassination by a Belgium-based Islamist militant group.
Looking like a rock star and ladies man, with his signature dark suits and unbuttoned white shirt, he said that “democracies are not run by the truth,” and notes that the American president is not the author of the anti-intellectual movement it, but rather its product. He added that the anti-intellectualism movement that has swept the United States and Europe in the last 12 months has been a long time coming. The responsibility to support verified information and not publicize fake news as equal has been ignored. He said that the president may be the heart of the anti-intellectual movement, but social media is the mechanism! Not everyone agrees with Bernard; however his views require our attention. If we are to preserve our democracy we have to look at the big picture and let go of some of our partisan thinking. We can still save our democracy, but only if we become patriots instead of partisans!
”
”
Hank Bracker
“
The biggest mistake I made was to believe that I could graduate from the school of life by skipping all the self-knowledge classes.
”
”
Valeria T. Koopman
“
I’ve made a policy of trying to hire people who are smarter than I am. The obvious payoffs of exceptional people are that they innovate, excel, and generally make your company—and, by extension, you—look good. But there is another, less obvious, payoff that only occurred to me in retrospect. The act of hiring Alvy changed me as a manager: By ignoring my fear, I learned that the fear was groundless. Over the years, I have met people who took what seemed the safer path and were the lesser for it. By hiring Alvy, I had taken a risk, and that risk yielded the highest reward—a brilliant, committed teammate. I had wondered in graduate school how I could ever replicate the singular environment of the U of U. Now, suddenly, I saw the way. Always take a chance on better, even if it seems threatening.
”
”
Ed Catmull (Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration)
“
Spend less than you make so you can whack away incrementally at the debt dragon with all you’ve got. It’s not exactly an algebraic formula reserved only for financial whizzes. Indeed, paying off debt isn’t complex; it’s just not easy. You don’t need a graduate degree, a fancy calculator, or a smarty-pants cap and gown. You are smart enough already. God has given you all you need.
”
”
Cherie Lowe (Slaying the Debt Dragon: How One Family Conquered Their Money Monster and Found an Inspired Happily Ever After)
“
Congratulations to all those who just graduated and those who will still graduate. I wish all of you can get employed. For those who might get jobs immediately please don’t lose hope. Never allow people in your hood to tell you that you are the same because you are sitting with them being unemployed. You are not the same. You are a post graduate. Get yourself The Theory of 46 Be’s book to keep you going. I would say, All the best with your future life, but I remembered that you are the future.
”
”
D.J. Kyos
“
A student graduates when he learns to swim, but a master graduates when he learns to walk on water.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
Life made easier for others is a life so worthwhile living
”
”
Margo Vader (Check Mate: For Graduates and Young Adults)
“
So in my uncertainty, I went to graduate school and there it all happened
”
”
Edward Torvalds
“
Many people think that designers are lone geniuses, working in solitude and waiting for a flash of inspiration to show them the solution to their design problem. Nothing could be further from the truth. There may be some problems, such as the design of a stool or a new set of children’s blocks, that are simple enough to be tackled by an individual, but in today’s highly technical world, almost every problem requires a design team. Design thinking takes this idea even further and suggests that the best results come from radical collaboration. Radical collaboration works on the principle that people with very different backgrounds will bring their idiosyncratic technical and human experiences to the team. This increases the chance that the team will have empathy for those who will use what they are designing, and that the collision of different backgrounds will generate truly unique solutions. This is proved over and over again in d.school classes at Stanford, where graduate students create teams of business, law, engineering, education, and medical students that come up with breakthrough innovations all the time. The glue that holds these teams together is design thinking, the human-centered approach to design that takes advantage of their different backgrounds to spur collaboration and creativity. Typically, none of the students have any design background when they enroll in our classes, and all of the teams struggle at first to be productive. They have to learn the mind-sets of a designer—especially radical collaboration and being mindful of process. But once that happens, they discover that their abilities as a team far exceed what any individual can do, and their creative confidence explodes.
”
”
Bill Burnett (Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life)
“
To sum up:
Figure out what you're good at, and get better at it. Along the way, don't waste your time on people whose decency isn't apparent when you first meet for a cup of coffee. Be an astute judge of character, and learn to judge quickly.
Read the news. Pay attention. Always aspire to act in a way that cancels out someone else's cruel or stupid behavior.
Never stop worrying. Live each day as if your rent is due tomorrow.
And always, always be the one who sleeps near the campfire - the one who would make Darwin proud.
”
”
Carl Hiaasen (Assume the Worst: The Graduation Speech You'll Never Hear)
“
I hunched under that table wondering how I got to this point. Wasn’t I supposed to be a writer, rubbing elbows at poetry conferences with Mary Ruefle and Kim Addonizio? Wasn’t I supposed to be spending these late spring months at retreats wearing woven island commune hippie clothes designed by women named Star? Having Evan changed all that. This was a direction I never expected. This is supposed to be the meantime—teaching in a public school so that I could make money, get my graduate degrees, and move on to my real calling. The one where I learn, create, and pub- lish. The one where I’m not huddled under standard issue cafeteria tables contemplating the best place to run when gunfire broke out. The one where somebody else is responsible for the welfare of these children surrounding me. The one where I don’t give a shit.
”
”
Jennifer Rieger (Burning Sage)
“
I hunched under that table wondering how I got to this point. Wasn’t I supposed to be a writer, rubbing elbows at poetry conferences with Mary Ruefle and Kim Addonizio? Wasn’t I supposed to be spending these late spring months at retreats wearing woven island commune hippie clothes designed by women named Star? Having Evan changed all that. This was a direction I never expected. This is supposed to be the meantime—teaching in a public school so that I could make money, get my graduate degrees, and move on to my real calling. The one where I learn, create, and publish. The one where I’m not huddled under standard issue cafeteria tables contemplating the best place to run when gunfire broke out. The one where somebody else is responsible for the welfare of these children surrounding me. The one where I don’t give a shit.
”
”
Jennifer Rieger (Burning Sage)
“
You can't burial what you have and born with even my history fail that what I motivate and inspired you with,by living life l learn many things I usually say journey of life is my collage and it graduated me the things that I wrote about on my books,blogging and podcasting with is organic raw and what I gone through it, yes I'm not perfect in doing what I doing but I make sure that I give what I have to the world and what can I promise you, I believe that it what I called to serve those I sent to them.
”
”
Nozipho N.Maphumulo
“
Live for the now, Learn forever.
”
”
Sabrina Moyle (Escargot for It!: A Snail’s Guide to Finding Your Own Trail & Shell-ebrating Success (Inspirational Illustrated Pun Book, Funny Graduation Gift))
“
Do what is right, not what is easy.
”
”
Sabrina Moyle (Escargot for It!: A Snail’s Guide to Finding Your Own Trail & Shell-ebrating Success (Inspirational Illustrated Pun Book, Funny Graduation Gift))
“
I realized that I get to report in the halls of Capitol Hill because of the work of disabled activists who literally crawled up the steps of that very building to help pass the ADA. When people see me as an inspiration because I ‘overcame’ my disability to graduate college and hold a job, I want to respond that the only things I overcame were the specific obstacles in front of me. I am a return on others’ investment in policy. In the same way, every autistic person who language is in classes or winds up in a group home or institution is not a reflection of poor upbringing but rather a failure in policy.”
~ Eric Garcia We’re Not Broken: Changing The Autism Conversation
”
”
Eric Garcia
“
So what should you do, right now then? Well you should start by listening to George Bernard Shaw who said that, “all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
Graduation gives you the courage to be unreasonable. Don’t bother to have a plan. Instead let’s have some luck. Success is really about being ready for the good opportunities that come before you. It’s not to have a detailed plan about everything you’re going to do, you can’t plan innovation or inspiration, but you can be ready for it. And when you see it, you can jump on it and you can make a difference, as many of the people here have already done.
Leadership and personality matters a lot. Intelligence, education, and analytical reasoning matter. Trust matters. In the network world, trust is the most important currency.
Which brings me to my final question. What is, in fact, the meaning of life? And in a world where everything is remembered and everything is kept forever–the world you are in–you need to live for the future and the things you really care about.
And what are those things? Well in order to know that, I hate to say it, but you’re going to have to turn off your computer. You’re actually going to have to turn off your phone and discover all that is human around us.
You’ll find that people really are the same all around the world. They really do care about the same things.
You’ll find that the resilience of a human being and the human spirit is amazing. You’ll find today that the best chance you will ever have is right now, to start being unreasonable.
You’ll find that a mind set in its way is a life wasted–don’t do it.
”
”
Eric Schmidt
“
finance, family, society, physical, emotional and spiritual health. You have to consciously maintain a balance.
”
”
Rashmi Bansal (ARISE, AWAKE
THE INSPIRING STORIES OF
YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS WHO
GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE
INTO A BUSINESS OF THEIR OWN)
“
God always makes room for those special souls who have graduated from the University of Adversity. Shouldn’t we? — Dixie Phillips
”
”
Gary Chapman (Love Is a Verb Devotional: 365 Daily Inspirations to Bring Love Alive)
“
Stay Hungry! Stay Foolish!
”
”
Steve Jobs (Steve Jobs Graduation Speech)
“
Sometimes the 'day' you're dreaming for never comes. Take control of your future and start now.
”
”
Oscar Auliq-Ice
“
Which is where the next ambitious ALG project comes in: African Leadership Unleashed, or ALU. Led by Fred Swaniker, ALU is a plan to establish a network of 25 universities across the continent by the end of the decade—Africa’s Ivy League—each of which will have 10,000 students. The first ALU has already opened in Mauritius. The idea is to apply the exact same boutique model of the African Leadership Academy to tertiary education. Once the 25 colleges are built and running, it will mean that every four years 250,000 young Africans trained in business, government, ethics, social policy, medicine and the arts will be entering the workforce. Among them will be the new generation of Africa’s leaders. Says Swaniker, “Hundreds of thousands of university graduates on the continent today are not equipped with the skills to lead change. About 45 percent of university graduates in Africa today are unemployed. This is a tragedy. I want to change this by applying ALA’s model in a tertiary space to provide the critical skills and leadership experience necessary for success.” Swaniker announced the project in a powerful talk at TEDGlobal 2014 in Rio de Janeiro titled “The Leaders Who Ruined Africa, and the Generation Who Can Fix It.” The talk has been downloaded over 1 million times and is a powerful and inspiring manifesto for this, the African Century.
”
”
Ashish J. Thakkar (The Lion Awakes: Adventures in Africa's Economic Miracle)
“
Play for love, play for money, play to win! The ball is right there – in front of you.
”
”
Rashmi Bansal (ARISE, AWAKE
THE INSPIRING STORIES OF
YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS WHO
GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE
INTO A BUSINESS OF THEIR OWN)
“
You can only see progress when you start doing something, so don't expect anything without your efforts.
”
”
Oscar Auliq-Ice
“
With the coming of Nazi-inspired racial laws, many promising Jewish graduate students were also dismissed from the universities. Castelnuovo organized special courses in his home, and in the homes of other Jewish former professors, to enable the graduate students to continue their studies. In addition to writing books on the history of mathematics, Castelnuovo spent the last of his eighty-seven years examine the philosophical relationship between determinism and chance and trying to interpret the concept of cause and effect.
”
”
David Salsburg (The Lady Tasting Tea: How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the Twentieth Century)
“
We will see a day when factory se bane banaye solutions site par jayenge – it will be prefab everywhere!
”
”
Rashmi Bansal (ARISE, AWAKE
THE INSPIRING STORIES OF
YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS WHO
GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE
INTO A BUSINESS OF THEIR OWN)
“
Always run a tight and lean ship. Do not burden the business with unnecessary costs, overheads like fancy offices, high travel costs and wasteful
”
”
Rashmi Bansal (ARISE, AWAKE
THE INSPIRING STORIES OF
YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS WHO
GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE
INTO A BUSINESS OF THEIR OWN)
“
Ajit was an entrepreneur. He spoke with enthusiasm, with energy and passion and that’s what connected with the young audience. Shashank thought to himself, “Wow! I want to be like that guy.
”
”
Rashmi Bansal (ARISE, AWAKE
THE INSPIRING STORIES OF
YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS WHO
GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE
INTO A BUSINESS OF THEIR OWN)
“
Ignition’, the first entrepreneurship summit for colleges in south India.
”
”
Rashmi Bansal (ARISE, AWAKE
THE INSPIRING STORIES OF
YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS WHO
GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE
INTO A BUSINESS OF THEIR OWN)
“
online certifications, including CFAP (Certified Forensic Accounting Professional), CBFA (Certified Banking Forensic Accountant) and CAME (Certified Anti-money Laundering Expert).
”
”
Rashmi Bansal (ARISE, AWAKE
THE INSPIRING STORIES OF
YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS WHO
GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE
INTO A BUSINESS OF THEIR OWN)
“
So, young lady – what can you do for us?” boomed one senior professional. “Everything – from training to digital forensic investigations,” replied Apurva.
”
”
Rashmi Bansal (ARISE, AWAKE
THE INSPIRING STORIES OF
YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS WHO
GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE
INTO A BUSINESS OF THEIR OWN)