Dear graduates: Travel and seek the uncomfortable
As commencement speaker at Mt. Horeb High School graduation yesterday, I strongly encouraged the graduates to travel “to unfamiliar territory where you risk feeling uncomfortable.” At least that’s what I did starting with my senior year (so I skipped my graduation at MHHS in 1989, ironically) spent as an exchange student to Istanbul, Turkey. I also mentioned my year, post-college, in Cairo, Egypt, and as a print journalist in four states before landing at Silent Sports in 2004.
But I closed with this:
“I advocated earlier that you go places that make you uncomfortable. That kind of discomfort, the kind that teaches you how to adapt, is not just found some place far away. It is that whisper of self doubt that is within each of us that we ought to visit and take on.
“Personally, I do this through endurance events – cross-country skiing and mountain biking races of 30 and 40-plus miles. In a couple weeks, in fact, I’ll be running my 11th, and hopefully fastest, marathon.
“As any long-time, long-distance runner can tell you, there are no short cuts to preparing oneself to run a marathon. To do well takes, at the very least, months of disciplined running of many, many miles in oppressive heat, strong winds, rain (such as this morning) and snow. It requires patience, the ability to recover from injury and other setbacks. Most importantly, the undertaking of a marathon sets you up for the distinct possibility of failure.
“I’ll never be fast, by any objective standard. But I know I’m a better journalist, co-worker, friend, son, husband and father because of the time I spend running, biking and skiing – pushing myself to exhaustion but also clearing my head and getting stronger and healthier in the process.
“That’s the analogy I’ll leave you with: To run is to travel is to experience life. If there’s any reason for you or I to exist on this tiny planet, I think it is to experience life; to make good use of the limited time we’re given. If, along the way, we can discover our true selves and make the lives of at least a few other people better, we should be able to consider ourselves successful in the end.
“No member of the Mt. Horeb Class of 2008 can know for certain where they’ll be 20 years from now. I certainly didn’t expect to be here talking to you.
“You’ll have to find your own way, make your own opportunities. But by seeking the unfamiliar and embracing the uncomfortable, the next 20-plus years from here can be for you, as mine were for me, a heck of a run.
“Thank you again for this opportunity. Good luck to each and every one of you.”
– Joel Patenaude