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Supreme Court Justice John Roberts’ Unconventional Speech to His Son’s Graduating Class
Rain， somebody said， is like confetti1 from heaven. So even the heavens are celebrating this morning， joining the rest of us at this wonderful commencement2 ceremony. Before we go any further， graduates， you have an important task to perform because behind you are your parents and guardians. Two or three or four years ago， they drove into Cardigan3， dropped you off， helped you get settled and then turned around and drove back out the gates. It was an extraordinary sacrifice for them. They drove down the trail of tears back to an emptier and lonelier house. They did that because the decision about your education， they knew， was about you. It was not about them.That sacrifice and others they made have brought you to this point. But this morning is not just about you. It is also about them， so I hope you will stand up and turn around and give them a great round of applause. Please.
Congratulations， class of 2017. You’ve reached an important milestone4. Now around the country today at colleges， high schools， middle schools， commencement speakers are standing before impatient graduates. And they are almost always saying the same things. They will say that today is a commencement exercise. “It is a beginning， not an end. You should look forward.” And I think that is true enough， however， I think if you’re going to look forward to figure out where you’re going， it’s good to know where you’ve been and to look back as well.
Now the commencement speakers will typically also wish you good luck and extend good wishes to you. I will not do that， and I’ll tell you why. From time to time in the years to come， I hope you will be treated unfairly， so that you will come to know the value of justice. I hope that you will suffer betrayal because that will teach you the importance of loyalty. Sorry to say， but I hope you will be lonely from time to time so that you don’t take friends for granted. I wish you bad luck， again， from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either. And when you lose， as you will from time to time， I hope every now and then， your opponent will gloat over your failure.5 It is a way for you to understand the importance of sportsmanship6. I hope you’ll be ignored so you know the importance of listening to others， and I hope you will have just enough pain to learn compassion. Whether I wish these things or not， they’re going to happen. And whether you benefit from them or not will depend upon your ability to see the message in your misfortunes. Now commencement speakers are also expected to give some advice. They give grand advice， and they give some useful tips. The most common grand advice they give is for you to be yourself. You should understand what that means. Unless you are perfect， it does not mean don’t make any changes. In a certain sense， you should not be yourself. You should try to become something better. People say “be yourself” because they want you to resist the impulse to conform to what others want you to be.7
The Greek philosopher Socrates8 said， “The unexamined life is not worth living.” And while “just do it” might be a good motto for some things， it’s not a good motto when it’s trying to figure out how to live your life that is before you.9 And one important clue to living a good life is to not to try to live the good life.10
So that’s the deep advice. Now some tips as you get ready to go to your new school. Over the last couple of years， I have gotten to know many of you young men pretty well， and I know you are good guys. But you are also privileged11 young men. And if you weren’t privileged when you came here， you are privileged now because you have been here. My advice is： Don’t act like it.
When you get to your new school， walk up and introduce yourself to the person who is raking the leaves， shoveling the snow or emptying the trash.12 Learn their name and call them by their name during your time at the school. Another piece of advice： When you pass by people you don’t recognize on the walks， smile， look them in the eye and say hello. The worst thing that will happen is that you will become known as the young man who smiles and says hello， and that is not a bad thing to start with.
The last bit of advice I’ll give you is very simple， but I think it could make a big difference in your life. Once a week， you should write a note to someone. Not an email.A note on a piece of paper. It will take you exactly 10 minutes. Talk to an adult， let them tell you what a stamp is. You can put the stamp on the envelope. Again， 10 minutes， once a week. I will help you， right now. I will dictate to you the first note you should write. It will say，“Dear [fill in the name of a teacher at Cardigan Mountain School].” Say： “I have started at this new school. We are reading [blank] in English. Football or soccer practice is hard， but I’m enjoying it. Thank you for teaching me.”Put it in an envelope， put a stamp on it and send it. It will mean a great deal to people who—for reasons most of us cannot contemplate13—have dedicated themselves to teaching middle school boys. As I said， that will take you exactly 10 minutes a week. By the end of the school year， you will have sent notes to 40 people. Forty people will feel a little more special because of what you did， and they will think you are very special because of what you did. No one else is going to carry that dividend14 during your time at school. Enough advice. I would like to end by reading some important lyrics15. I cited the Greek philosopher Socrates earlier. These lyrics are from the great American philosopher， Bob Dylan16. They’re almost 50 years old. He wrote them for his son， Jesse， who he was missing while he was on tour. It lists the hopes that a parent might have for a son and for a daughter. They’re also good goals for a son and a daughter. The wishes are beautiful， they’re timeless. They’re universal. So these are the lyrics from “Forever Young” by Bob Dylan：
May God bless you and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung17
And may you stay forever young…
Thank you.
1. confetti： //（在聚会、游行等场合抛撒的）五彩纸屑。
2. commencement：（大学或高中的）毕业典礼。
3. Cardigan： 全称为Cardigan Mountain School，卡迪根山中学，美国私立寄宿制男校。
4. milestone： 里程碑。
5. opponent： 对手，敌手；gloat over： 为？？幸灾乐祸，洋洋得意。
6. sportsmanship： 体育精神，亦称为公平竞技（Fair-play），一种重要的体育价值观，希望赛事能在公平、尊重和合伦理的环境下进行。
7. 人们说“做自己”是因为他们希望你不要屈从于他人的意愿。impulse： 冲动；conform：遵照，顺从。
8. Socrates： 苏格拉底（公元前469年—公元前399年），古希腊哲学家、教育家。
9. 对某些事情来说，“just do it”是个不错的建议，但除非你确定自己想过什么样的生活，这个建议要慎用。motto： 格言，箴言。
10. 幸福生活很重要的一条经验是：不要为了所谓的“好生活”而生活。
11. privileged： 享有特權的，优越的。
12. rake：（用耙子）耙（或收集）；shovel： 用铲挖，铲走。
13. contemplate： 仔细考虑，深思。
14. dividend： 效益，回报。
15. lyric： 歌词，抒情短诗。
16. Bob Dylan： 鲍勃·迪伦（1941— ），美国唱作人、艺术家和作家，2016年获诺贝尔文学奖，因其为美国歌曲传统带来了全新的诗意表达。
17. rung： 梯子横档，梯级。
Rain， somebody said， is like confetti1 from heaven. So even the heavens are celebrating this morning， joining the rest of us at this wonderful commencement2 ceremony. Before we go any further， graduates， you have an important task to perform because behind you are your parents and guardians. Two or three or four years ago， they drove into Cardigan3， dropped you off， helped you get settled and then turned around and drove back out the gates. It was an extraordinary sacrifice for them. They drove down the trail of tears back to an emptier and lonelier house. They did that because the decision about your education， they knew， was about you. It was not about them.That sacrifice and others they made have brought you to this point. But this morning is not just about you. It is also about them， so I hope you will stand up and turn around and give them a great round of applause. Please.
Congratulations， class of 2017. You’ve reached an important milestone4. Now around the country today at colleges， high schools， middle schools， commencement speakers are standing before impatient graduates. And they are almost always saying the same things. They will say that today is a commencement exercise. “It is a beginning， not an end. You should look forward.” And I think that is true enough， however， I think if you’re going to look forward to figure out where you’re going， it’s good to know where you’ve been and to look back as well.
Now the commencement speakers will typically also wish you good luck and extend good wishes to you. I will not do that， and I’ll tell you why. From time to time in the years to come， I hope you will be treated unfairly， so that you will come to know the value of justice. I hope that you will suffer betrayal because that will teach you the importance of loyalty. Sorry to say， but I hope you will be lonely from time to time so that you don’t take friends for granted. I wish you bad luck， again， from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either. And when you lose， as you will from time to time， I hope every now and then， your opponent will gloat over your failure.5 It is a way for you to understand the importance of sportsmanship6. I hope you’ll be ignored so you know the importance of listening to others， and I hope you will have just enough pain to learn compassion. Whether I wish these things or not， they’re going to happen. And whether you benefit from them or not will depend upon your ability to see the message in your misfortunes. Now commencement speakers are also expected to give some advice. They give grand advice， and they give some useful tips. The most common grand advice they give is for you to be yourself. You should understand what that means. Unless you are perfect， it does not mean don’t make any changes. In a certain sense， you should not be yourself. You should try to become something better. People say “be yourself” because they want you to resist the impulse to conform to what others want you to be.7
The Greek philosopher Socrates8 said， “The unexamined life is not worth living.” And while “just do it” might be a good motto for some things， it’s not a good motto when it’s trying to figure out how to live your life that is before you.9 And one important clue to living a good life is to not to try to live the good life.10
So that’s the deep advice. Now some tips as you get ready to go to your new school. Over the last couple of years， I have gotten to know many of you young men pretty well， and I know you are good guys. But you are also privileged11 young men. And if you weren’t privileged when you came here， you are privileged now because you have been here. My advice is： Don’t act like it.
When you get to your new school， walk up and introduce yourself to the person who is raking the leaves， shoveling the snow or emptying the trash.12 Learn their name and call them by their name during your time at the school. Another piece of advice： When you pass by people you don’t recognize on the walks， smile， look them in the eye and say hello. The worst thing that will happen is that you will become known as the young man who smiles and says hello， and that is not a bad thing to start with.
The last bit of advice I’ll give you is very simple， but I think it could make a big difference in your life. Once a week， you should write a note to someone. Not an email.A note on a piece of paper. It will take you exactly 10 minutes. Talk to an adult， let them tell you what a stamp is. You can put the stamp on the envelope. Again， 10 minutes， once a week. I will help you， right now. I will dictate to you the first note you should write. It will say，“Dear [fill in the name of a teacher at Cardigan Mountain School].” Say： “I have started at this new school. We are reading [blank] in English. Football or soccer practice is hard， but I’m enjoying it. Thank you for teaching me.”Put it in an envelope， put a stamp on it and send it. It will mean a great deal to people who—for reasons most of us cannot contemplate13—have dedicated themselves to teaching middle school boys. As I said， that will take you exactly 10 minutes a week. By the end of the school year， you will have sent notes to 40 people. Forty people will feel a little more special because of what you did， and they will think you are very special because of what you did. No one else is going to carry that dividend14 during your time at school. Enough advice. I would like to end by reading some important lyrics15. I cited the Greek philosopher Socrates earlier. These lyrics are from the great American philosopher， Bob Dylan16. They’re almost 50 years old. He wrote them for his son， Jesse， who he was missing while he was on tour. It lists the hopes that a parent might have for a son and for a daughter. They’re also good goals for a son and a daughter. The wishes are beautiful， they’re timeless. They’re universal. So these are the lyrics from “Forever Young” by Bob Dylan：
May God bless you and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung17
And may you stay forever young…
Thank you.
1. confetti： //（在聚会、游行等场合抛撒的）五彩纸屑。
2. commencement：（大学或高中的）毕业典礼。
3. Cardigan： 全称为Cardigan Mountain School，卡迪根山中学，美国私立寄宿制男校。
4. milestone： 里程碑。
5. opponent： 对手，敌手；gloat over： 为？？幸灾乐祸，洋洋得意。
6. sportsmanship： 体育精神，亦称为公平竞技（Fair-play），一种重要的体育价值观，希望赛事能在公平、尊重和合伦理的环境下进行。
7. 人们说“做自己”是因为他们希望你不要屈从于他人的意愿。impulse： 冲动；conform：遵照，顺从。
8. Socrates： 苏格拉底（公元前469年—公元前399年），古希腊哲学家、教育家。
9. 对某些事情来说，“just do it”是个不错的建议，但除非你确定自己想过什么样的生活，这个建议要慎用。motto： 格言，箴言。
10. 幸福生活很重要的一条经验是：不要为了所谓的“好生活”而生活。
11. privileged： 享有特權的，优越的。
12. rake：（用耙子）耙（或收集）；shovel： 用铲挖，铲走。
13. contemplate： 仔细考虑，深思。
14. dividend： 效益，回报。
15. lyric： 歌词，抒情短诗。
16. Bob Dylan： 鲍勃·迪伦（1941— ），美国唱作人、艺术家和作家，2016年获诺贝尔文学奖，因其为美国歌曲传统带来了全新的诗意表达。
17. rung： 梯子横档，梯级。