"Don't fear death, rather a life unlived"

Scholarship Essa

"Write a valedictorian essay/speech that is no longer than 1000 words. The essay/speech should fulfill two goals: it should convey a "sending off" message to the members of a graduating class; it should also inspire graduating students to leave the comfort and security of their school with a full heart, ready to embark on a new adventure."

My fellow students, one day you will die! You will cease to exist and be forever no more. Now whither you believe you shall live again reincarnate or live beyond the pearly gates is defined by your faith. But what we do know, without a doubt, no faith needed, is that this life will end and it could very well be our only chance to fully experience our own consciousness. So it is up to us to question why we fear death so much, rather, a life unlived. Life is one in which we should strive to contemplate with wonder the mysteries it has to offer, to feel the Joy and elation and even to reflect on sorrow and loss.  These are but branches to the question so often asked in the stillness of our souls. What is the meaning of life?  The answer lies in the question.  Life is the meaning of life, it’s our experiences nothing more and nothing less that make life…life.  So what does all this mean to our graduating class? Should you wish for me to regurgitate what is so often heard before? Study hard, make good grades, get a good job and start a family.Is this what you want to hear? I digress but only from a truth that may be true, but only in the sense that the colors that represent our school represent us individually to the same degree.  If you ask me, Kory, should I study hard? The answer is but self-evident but I would merely refer you to asking a better question.  The Question to ask yourself is, what would I enjoy learning about to the degree that studying really just becomes a combination of your curiosity fueled by passion.  This response, lead by the proper question negates the first. For you would no longer need to ask, for you are driven by it. Life is an adventure, every day is a new opportunity to learn and soak in experiences.  Find something that is going to keep you up at night, where you blend your reality with the dreams that dance around on the edge your possibility. Are they one in which you need a degree? Does it require a continuing education of brick and mortar or one of nature and or trade? How do you define education? How do you define success? Grade yourself not so much by the standards our society, systems or family have set up, for they are more likely wrong in as many ways as they are right. We need our society, systems and family but only as a context not as a rule of objective truth for we evolve and change thus what was true in the morning will be a lie at night and what is true at night will have been a lie in the morning. (Wayne Dyer)Grade yourself by your own aliveness, your own joy and happiness!  We so often judge each other by a strict set of characteristics that do not apply to the strengths in which many of us have.  Einstein once referred to the genius in everybody, but that if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will grow up thinking it is stupid its whole life.  Do not let that become you. Take criticism but only in the way in which Aristotle would deem the mark of an educated mind, which is to be able to entertain a thought or idea without accepting it outright. To do this my fellow students take time. Time may be money but money may not be happiness or fulfillment.  Don’t be so quick to get somewhere when you’re not even sure of what you want out of the trip. It may not be what you’re expecting, let’s just hope if it’s not…then it’s not too late. Leo Tolstoy, a man who some considered the soul of Russia, captured his decent into the edge of death where he had a sense of an awakening by it; Through this transformation came a collection of short stories written in a book. One of those stories being “The death of Ivan Ilyich” In this story Ivan was a judge who lived in Moscow.  Now one of the more important features of this story was his relationship to his wife, who he basically hated. And he hated because he despised his work. He felt that she had pressured him and pushed him into this work because it was the prestigious thing to do instead of a life of music. Reaching his end he found himself empty inside, aside from rage and anger. Now the title of the story gives way to what is going to happen, Ivan Ilyich dies.  But as he’s lying on his death bed, his life flickering off him, starring up at this woman who he despised, he said allowed “What if my whole life has been wrong?” Then he died. My fellow students as a call to action, the first chance you get when you receive your diploma I want you to write a message to yourself as an ever reminding goal.  Dear “blank” don’t die with your music still in you.  My fellow students have the courage to discover what success means to you by living the life of your dreams because cowards die many times before their deaths, but the valiant never taste of death but once.- WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Julius Caesar

I hope you were able to get something out of this, if so please leave a comment and share your thoughts!

~Kory