As many of our high school graduates walk across the stage this weekend to receive their diplomas, I again want to offer some words of wisdom and encouragement for them regarding their accomplishment and future.

First off, congratulations! Your hard work has finally paid off. Your graduation from high school is something to be proud of because too many young people never get there. Far too often that’s because those young people just didn’t have others ‘inside their circle’ to help them get to the finish line.

There is a great life lesson to be found in that: you didn’t get here all by yourself. While the diploma in your hands is absolutely yours, you also know that other important people helped lift, push, and/or pull you to it. Understanding that – even embracing it – is important to keep up front and center as you move forward in your life. While it is true you will have your hands on the steering wheel of your life, the hard fact of the matter is there will be a lot of people from here on helping you to navigate the road in front of you.

Your plan is yours, but it’s not just your plan in play. There are many, many elements – and most yet unseen – that will indelibly impact how your plan unfolds. Lots of paths will cross yours along the way.

And while I know it’s way too fashionable for young people to shrug their shoulders when folks who have already navigated those roads offer their wisdom, and trust me on this, you will be making a mistake ignoring them. Those hard-earned lessons and perspectives can save you a lot of wear and tear if you simply and wisely listen to them.

Hard fact: you don’t get to be old by being stupid.

You live in an age where there’s more information to sort through than ever. But you need sources of wisdom to help sort right from wrong, truth from fiction. We all do. Take advantage of those sources in your life, and often. Never be afraid to ask for help.

Be curious and excited about your future. Dream big, make a plan, and go for it. Why not? Right now your life is an empty canvas waiting for you to choose the colors and brush strokes you’ll use to paint it into a work of art unlike any before.

That’s why it is so vitally important to make sure to surround yourself with people who bring out the best in you, not the stress or worst in you. The old adage regarding ‘birds of a feather’ is very accurate – fair or not, you will be judged by those around you.

Be nice to everyone you encounter. Treat the janitor the same way you’d treat the CEO, because if you’re broke down on the side of the road that janitor is much more likely to stop and help you. And it doesn’t matter whether all of them are nice back to you or not – it’s never wrong for you to do the right thing anyway.

You’ll be working pretty much the rest of your life in some shape or fashion. If you can find a job that you enjoy, then amen. Regardless, always have something in your life that you truly, passionately enjoy doing, and do it as regularly as you can. That way you always have something to look forward to doing and helping fill your life with smiles.

The best news of all: you get to write your own ending! So, what’s that going to be? Never forget that every single moment of your life is a gift from God – but what you do with those moments is your gift TO God. You live your life with that single precept right up front and center and you’ll never have regrets.

None of us get out of this place alive – so those moments, each of them, are priceless. Attack life with joy and passion, and you’ll never go to bed feeling like the day you just lived was wasted.

More than anything, believe in yourself. It seems so easy to look at other people and situations and feel like you will never measure up to them – did the thought ever cross your mind that perhaps those very people look at you and feel the same thing? Believing in others is easy – but believing in yourself is essential.

Of the billions of humans who have come before you and who will come after you, you are 100% unique. That’s not an accident. We’re all imperfect, screwed-up critters – but in that imperfection is perfection. Consider the world, the universe around you, and never lose sight of the fact that in all of its awesomeness, you are very much a part of it, and it is a part of you. Again, that’s no accident. There’s something quite empowering in that view.

You have an unprecedented opportunity in front of you to change the world around you for the better – and when you get right down to it, that should be the goal for us all: to leave this place better than it ever would’ve been without us.

To the class of ‘25, and all who helped them get here, my heartfelt congratulations and best wishes. May God bless every one of you!