To the class of 2026:
Pay attention.
Exercise your listening skills. Hearing is not the same as listening.
Be curious. There are no bad questions.
Don't go seeking happiness. Seek wisdom, growth, and give yourself grace along the way. In the end, finding ways to make others happy will bring you happiness, too.
Turn off radio, TV and digital. Engage.
Navigate this life with your mind and heart wide open, and joy will surely find you. Your thoughts are magic spells: If you think you're great, you're great.
Be you. The chatbot will make you more basic and suck your creativity dry. Try asking real people for answers instead.
Don鈥檛 wait to be ready to begin something. You鈥檒l never be ready enough. Sometimes, you gotta say why not?
Try cutting your own hair. It鈥檚 the only way to learn you shouldn鈥檛 cut your own hair.
Never take yourself too seriously.
Fail big. It's the only way to succeed. If at first you don鈥檛 succeed, then skydiving is not for you.
Call your mother. Ask your dad for help. Spend some time with your grandparents. Ask questions. Hold their hands.
Strive to make your ancestors proud.
Every family has an uncle who ruins Thanksgiving. And if you don鈥檛, it鈥檚 you.
Gain financial literacy now. Buy stock. Start saving in your 401(k). TSA touchless pre-check will be the best $78 outlay you will ever make.
Sometimes it鈥檚 better to have effed around and found out than to have never effed around at all.
Stay involved. Vote. Your generation needs to be heard.
Being a good guy isn't nearly as hard as the bad ones make it seem.
Things are rarely as great as you make them out to be and even more rarely as bad as you make them out to be. You will never be prepared for all the things that worry you, so don't waste your time.
Your learning doesn鈥檛 end at commencement.
Give 鈥榚m hell.
