To the Class of 2007: 'Listen to your hearts'

Politicians, activists, even rock musicians deliver commencement addresses across the country.

By Chris Gaylord | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the June 7, 2007 edition

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It's that season again – time for college seniors to gather for one final lecture. This spring, graduation speakers touched on the need for respect, the joy of collaboration, and the importance of honoring those who couldn't join them because of deployments to faraway lands.

Here's a sampling of some of the wisdom dispensed to the Class of 2007:

The Edge

Rock musician

Berklee College of Music, Boston

The thing I want to say is: Collaborate.

Collaborating with talented people is not easy, but it's the way to really shine – you shine brighter if you are working with really great people. The important thing in the end is not that you are proved right every time; the important thing is that the music is the best that it can be. I want to wish you all that you would find your own voice. But if you are so disposed that you would find collaborators to work with, that you would shine as you could never shine on your own.

Naomi Tutu

Human rights activist

Bentley College, Waltham, Mass.

Those of you sitting here are not self-made people. Not to take away from your achievements, [but] you know that those people sitting behind you – your family and friends, along with your college faculty and staff; those who came before you to put up the buildings; those who gave to the college so you would have the wonderful facilities you now have – you know that each of these people have part of the degree that you are going to receive....

But of all those people who went before to prepare the way for us, most of those people will not ask us to pay them back. But what they do ask of us is to pay it forward – that we make this world a better place for those who come after us in just the way that they made this a better place for us.

Marlee Matlin

Actress

Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Our society today is plagued with too many people who are not willing to entertain the "could be's, the maybe's, the might be's." Instead, they are focused on the "can't be's, the won't be's, or the nevers." As a woman growing up deaf, who wanted to be an actress, despite what others may have thought was impossible, I know firsthand what wonder there is if we consider what is possible. And I know the same is true for you....

Make sure you are more than what people think you are and much more even that. With that comes a responsibility to help others who may not have achieved that understanding. Along the way, don't forget to volunteer, to love, to laugh, pay your taxes, but most of all, never forget to listen. Listen to your hearts.

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