Joss Whedon Wesleyan Commencement Speech Summary

I am an active member of my school and community. At school I feel that i've gained the respect of my peers being elected as Student Council representative for the past four years. I have also been elected the treasurer of the choir, and secretary of the band. I am part of the Ross Middle School bucket drumming group and have been casted as part of the school theatre’s annual play. After school on Wednesdays I assist Ms. Rullman in helping students with homework and enhancing study methods. I am currently participating in science olympiad and have in the past. I am also an anchor on the popular Good Morning Ross Middle School weekly news show. In addition, I have been a part of National Junior Honor Society which takes part in service projects

In the 2005 commencement address at Kenyon College, David Foster Wallace delivered an unusual message to the graduates. He uses a unique approach to the typical conventions of a commencement speech in order to catch the attention of the graduates and to reinforce the honesty of his message. By defying their expectations, he urges them to consider their own obliviousness and to look past their own natural biases in order to see what’s truly right in front of them.

Good morning Principle Boyd, proud parents, faculty, and fellow graduates, to this extraordinary celebration breakfast, in honor of Our Lady of Grace Catholic School Class of 2017. Yes, I am graduating 8th grade, but I still have to make my bed, be nice to my siblings, do my chores, I cannot drive a car, I must continue putting my Iphone into my locker every night, so that I will not be grounded!  Nevertheless, I am graduating from Our Lady of Grace Catholic School, and I feel like I found a pot-of-gold at the end of the rainbow.

I believe that existence is comprised of hundreds and millions of different realities intermingling and colliding into one another. I also believe that at the center of each reality there lies the individual who crafted it. Our perception of what is real and false exists solely in our own minds, and our minds are what determines the lense in which we perceive the world. Our perception is largely influenced by our psyche; how we live and think stems from our perception of the world. Our brains are directly influenced by a number of key factors, including but not limited to; societal connotations, individual experience, instinctual desires, environmental factors, and cognitive thought. These factors, as well as other conditions, are what determine our “default setting.” In his noteable “This is Water” speech, given at the 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address, David Foster Wallace argues a similar idea as he explains his take on the phrase “teaching you how to think”. Through his use of relatable parables and anecdotes and repetition and reverent focus of words like “choice” and “awareness” he paints a livid picture of the use of conscious choice in our daily lives. He stresses the concept of a self centered “default setting” that comes from an individual's “blind certainty” and the repercussions that deferring to that default can have on an individual's lifestyle and fulfilment. If we are unable to recognise the water in which we dwell we will always remain unaware, stuck in an

“You don’t change the world with the ideas in your mind, but with the conviction in your heart.”

Famed American author David Foster Wallace gave a commencement speech to Kenyon College’s graduating class of 2005. Most commencement speeches focus on graduates’ accomplishments as well as give general life advice. Wallace’s presentation follows this pattern at first, congratulating the students on getting their diplomas. However, most of his speech is dedicated to the idea of thinking beyond ourselves. Throughout the speech, Wallace argues we should live with empathy through his use of humor and appeals to the audience’s empathy.

It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” (Jobs 21-22) Why would one talk about death at a commencement speech especially to a bunch of young adults? The reason why he spoke about death was to motivate everyone into not wasting time on things they don’t enjoy. Everyone should follow their hearts, and make their own decisions. Steve told the graduates “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma-which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary (Jobs 22). In other words, it is very simple. Steve wants the audience to understand how important it is to make your own choices in life because it will pave a path to happiness, and you won’t have regrets because life is short.

Hill spoke about how the graduates would be able to change the world, while referencing politics, popular culture, and history. Since these topics are included with his situated ethos, these statements were credible. Dr. Hill was also a credible person to give a college commencement speech since he is a college professor, which is also a part of his situated ethos. Dr. Hill used examples, such as the Civil Rights Movement, to demonstrate his point that while people may want to forget the past, they have to remember it in order to change the world. This demonstrated his situated ethos, since he is a teaches African American Studies, and the Civil Rights Movement

Famous actors, musicians, politicians, artists and authors are often called upon to deliver commencement addresses at prestigious places of higher learning. It doesn't take Nobel-Prize-winning social scientists or psychologists, or speech professors to predict what these elite guest speakers will say on such occasions such as these. The speaker will tell the graduating class to aim high, never give up, make the most of opportunities, and do as our forbearers did: pull yourselves up by the bootstraps. But when Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks showed up at Vassar College to present the commencement address, his presentation avoided those clichés and platitudes. Hanks was refreshing original and yet remarkably pragmatic. This paper critiques Hanks' themes, examines his rhetorical techniques, and editorially analyzes his purpose.

How to Change the World Growing up, we have all probably heard the chilché motivational speech that everyone can achieve their dreams and make a monumental difference in the world, no matter how insignificant we may think we are in the grand scheme of things. The documentary How to Change the World, directed by Jerry Rothwell, attests to the legitimacy of this statement that we may not have believed as children. By using imagery and audio to establish pathos, the stories of real life people to establish ethos, and steps that are actually proven to work to establish logos, Rothwell tries to convince the viewers that no matter how small you start out, if you have something you believe in and are willing to work for then you can change the world.

George Saunders’ commencement address deals with a variable of topics but it primarily deals with life. Saunders uses the course of his own life to try and help the graduates make the right choices so they will not grow old with regret for things they did, or things they did not do. In the address Saunders tells the graduates that some of the most memorable things in his life did not have good results and that some the things he regrets the most did not have any repercussions that directly affected himself.

“Death. The only thing inevitable in life”, Colleen Hoover, an American author, simply summarized our greatest fear in words that once read, cannot be forgotten. It’s the journey that counts, it’s how you live that counts and till your last breath bringing pride to the country you were born in and eventually to the rest of the world. What scares me the most is not that we are mortals,but the deeds that we do aren’t. Everything I do in this moment will change something in what is to come. The worst part is that as John Donne once said, “No man is an island” everything I do will affect someone in my life. Therefore a ripple will reach the people I care about and the things I care about. It is this weight that I refer to as responsibility. This

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He appeals to the audience’s emotions by telling the audience to be open to life and accept new views. He explains that we all need to do things that scare us, whatever it may be. Statements such as these force the audience to reflect on their own lives and identities. The emotion attached to those statements especially for graduating students at the University of Pennsylvania, is powerful, moving, and remarkable. For the graduates in the audience, they are forced to grapple with their feelings about the future, this portion of the speech provokes the specific emotions regarding those emotions. The type of emotion that Denzel Washington provoked was extremely effective and appropriate for this commencement

English class seemed to be the most dreadful to take within school. Writing essays for most of my grade in a class is not what I was looking forward too. When I entered college I knew that it would be one of many challenging classes I would have to take. Starting from the lowest English class to moving on up, the writing assignments became longer and more thought out. The time came when I got into this class that I knew more work was going to have to be put into essays and thus brought out what I had not seen before in my work progress.