Quotes for High School Commencement Speeches

I just realized that it has been thirty-five years since my high school graduation. If this statement is not a turn off, here are a few thoughts for the high school student preparing for life and a commencement speech.

"The tassel's worth the hassle!" ~Unknown. While the dropout rate in America has slowly declined from fifteen percent in 1972 to the documented rate of nine percent in 2005, the lack of a high school diploma is a precursor to minimum wage jobs and public assistance. To open doors of "advanced" opportunities, the tassel is mandatory!

"Keep Your Head to the Sky" ~Maurice White of Earth, Wind and Fire and Les Brown's "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." I would have never believed as a high school graduate that I would be citing the words of my then-favorite DJ from radio's WVKO in Columbus, Ohio. But "Miss Mamie Brown's son," Les saw past the confines of those station walls. Today Les Brown is a world-renowned speaker and best selling author. Brown internalized the sentiments of White's words by focusing his mind for a "life lived on purpose."

"Service is the rent we pay to be living. It is the very purpose of life and not something you do in your spare time." ~ Marian Wright Edelman. The man I have called "Pastor" for twenty years or more has always told his congregation, "Everybody wants to be a leader. Nobody wants to be a servant but somebody has got to serve." Drawing on biblical examples in the west and ancient thinkers in the east, people young and old can draw direction from the servant-leadership model. Chinese sage Lao Tzu wrote about it in the year 600 B. C. :

The greatest leader forgets himself

And attends to the development of others.

Good leaders support excellent workers.

Great leaders support the bottom ten percent.

Great leaders know that

The diamond in the rough

Is always found "in the rough."