Charlie Day's Merrimack College Commencement Address

I now have the honor inducing this year's commencement speaker mr. Charlie day a few of you may have heard something about mr. day he arrived on our campus from Rhode Island in the fall of 1994 intent on a college experience that included playing varsity baseball he soon soon turned his time and talents to other pursuits as a finite student he was an active participant in the theater productions and after his graduation in 1998 found himself auditioning for roles on a broader stage his work in the theater soon brought him to television and he helped develop and stars in the program it's always sunny in philadelphia and his work on the wide screen has included many well we got at films his role today is even more significant it gives me great honor and pride to welcome to the podium a true son of Merrimack the college's 64th commencement speaker mr. Charlie Day good morning Merrimack ah Thank You president hoping faculty trustees students parents grandparents who have absolutely no idea who I am and I love to say there's nothing more exhilarating than getting to follow a great speech by Ugandan refugee a terrible position to be in but I'll do my best and well done Kennedy well you are graduating from an excellent school today alumni have gone on to be CEOs politicians professional athletes however this year you will get to receive wisdom life lessons knowledge from a man who's made a living pretending to eat cat food now I do however have some qualifications some insight because like you are becoming today I'm a Merrimack College graduate thank you I know what it took to get here today I was in this very room i sat on those uncomfortable chairs I dressed like some sort of medieval pastry chef and I do desperately hoped that my hangover would wear off yeah that one knows if you can just make it to brunch you'll be alright I take note a quick observation today apparently the higher you climb in life the more ridiculous your hats will become like the one I'm wearing today or the Pope or Pharrell so some way you fear success just think of the hats that's the motivate yet well this may be hard to believe but it was a roughly 20 years ago that as a freshman I came to this campus I remember well my parents who are here today and I'm not thinking my mother as much as Kennedy did I'm sorry I remember the tears in their eyes I remember my own nervous excitement I can recall entering the - the Ashe dormitory walking to the right bank yeah there they are walking to my room my heart was pounding with what the future might hold I grabbed on to the door handle I held it tight only to discover that someone had covered it with Vaseline it was a real lame prank by the third floor boys and I thought to myself okay this is how it's going to be here they have no idea who just arrived at campus later that day I befriended a man named Edie who had a similar pest Shawn from stevia sness and that night at and I went to the third floor boys community bathrooms and we cut all the shower curtains at waist high thank you that's right leaving those boys with a diabolical option for the next morning don't take a shower or take the most embarrassing shower of your life my apologies to the school for discretion of destruction of school property I promise to donate two shower curtains we'll have to dig up Eadie to get the third well Merrimack has come a long way since my time the campus has grown the quality of student clearly improved US News and World Report has ranked Miramax one of the top 10 regional colleges in the Northeast well done in my time there was a man here who scored in the zero percentile on his SATs meaning no one in the nation did worse than this man this is a man who once told someone he wished he lived when it was black and white this is the same man whose Ted to someone with complete seriousness that he would take their advice into cooperation this man of course was my roommate did you think it was me no you're you're confusing me with my television character no I'm much smarter in fact I'm a doctor now I have a PhD and I would like to thank the school for bestowing me with this prestigious honor and although I realized today I am joining the ranks of my fellow honorary doctors like Mike Tyson and Kermit the Frog and although I acknowledge that dr. Charlie day sounds like some sort of club DJ I assure you I intend to go by this title from now on and I plan to begin writing my own prescriptions immediately all right now I know that having an honorary Doctor degree will do nothing for me but I am here to tell you today that your degrees the ones you toil to get the ones you actually took classes to earn those degrees will also basically do nothing let me clarify that you cannot exchange your degree for cash you cannot have your degree through an audition or interview for you you cannot eat it please do not make love to it I think you could probably smoke it but I wouldn't advise it a college degree does nothing it collects dust it does however mean something it tells something to your community it says I have expanded my mind and destroyed my liver but I didn't give up and although 44 of you here today took more than four years to accomplish that goal you don't have to tell anyone now yeah they are think of the plus side you bought your parents a few extra years of nobody living in their basement now all jokes aside you should be very proud this is an impressive chapter of your lives and I know you're curious of what will happen from here so let me tell you dr. DJ is here to help I have been in your shoes not literally of course I wouldn't go anywhere near your shoes I'm sure they all reek of beer and vomit but my point is this I was in this room and this is a rare opportunity for me to say something to myself 20 years ago here's my advice charlie lay off the dark beer and bread you're getting puffy don't worry about that girl I mean she's not into you let it go she's going to regret it there's gonna be a whole wide 2 K thing don't worry about it like nothing's gonna happen all right now I realize this isn't the most useful exercise for you but I'm pretty happy with the choices I made after Merrimack my life is pretty sweet so I'd like to tell you three quick stories about some of those choices I made when I left here some of the things that led me from that chair to this podium and I hope in some way you can draw parallels from it that can help guide your own experience if not feel free to tune out if you're anything like I was I lost you at Good Morning Merrimack when I left this school I was presented with two options I could move to New York City and begin my acting career a city where I knew next to no one or I could take the entry-level position that had been offered to me by fidelity investments now I know what you're thinking why would a major financial services corporation offer this numbskull a job the answer is simple because I tricked them Miramax business program was offering interviews of the company the students would be given a score on their interview and I'd never been on an audition it seemed like it would be a similar experience and I liked the role of aspiring banker or whatever they do at fidelity I had a game plan deflect from me get this guy to talk about himself I wasn't gonna lie I was just basically going to interview him if I recall correctly we talked at length about the intricacies of water skiing an activity I know nothing about now had the man asked me what eight times seven was there would have been an unbearable pause in the room but he didn't and the interview went so well that he offered me a job and this was a real job I'm sorry I'm making your children cry this was a real job this was a big-boy job and this threw me for a loop should I take this job is this my destiny my the next great financial genius should I come up with a plan B should I work in Boston for a few years and make enough money to have a cozy transition to New York well I have always had a half-baked philosophy that having a plan B can muddy up your plan a I didn't take the job I moved to the city I bussed tables I lived in a basement apartment next to a garbage chute that was filled with cockroaches and I could not have made a better decision well maybe not the apartment thing I think I could have looked a little longer you'll find better apartments stay away from the trash area now there's an obvious lesson here about believing in yourself for the plan a plan B stuff excuse me while I navigate this thing but I think the lesson is this had I worked in at fidelity I am sure they would have fired me eventually I can barely do long division but I didn't want to fail at fidelity and I did not want to fail in Boston if I was going to run the risk of failure I wanted it to be in the place where I would be proud to fail doing what I wanted to do and let me tell you something I did fail over and over again I was too short for this or too weird for that I had one casting agents say this man will never work in comedy but I was in the fight I was taking my punches but I was in the fight that is a metaphor of course I don't think I have any actual ability to take a punch now my second story is about creating your own two opportunities instead of waiting for them to be handed to you after a few years in New York my foot was in the door I was doing pretty prestigious parts like mailroom kid one and junkie two but after many failed attempts of getting cast in a television show something popped up it looked as though I was going to be offered a job on a big network television program called life on a stick now around the same time because I was tired of waiting for my break to just happen I along with my friend Rob McElhenney and Glenn Howerton started filming my own television show in my apartment I had a sense that maybe I could create an opportunity that was better than the ones that were being given to me so I borrowed cameras I had friends hold microphones and we shot a show in our apartments that we were going to call It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia now suddenly there was another decision to be made another crossroad do I do life on a stick do I take this big Network television opportunity or do I make another bet on myself and this time on my friends as well do I make no money do I try to sell a home movie as the next great television series I mean I was trying to tell people I was a writer and I didn't even own a personal computer now this was a risky bet a real long shot but I said no to a life on the stick and I went with sunny life on a stick went one season in 13 episodes we are currently filming our 10th season of sunny we've written and produced 114 episodes we're signed on for another two years making us Always Sunny in Philadelphia one of the longest-running comedies of all time again a betta myself and this time on my friend you don't want this this will be better I've earned it this time a betta myself that's not better and I bet on my friends itself as well paid off it paid off in Spain there was power in numbers and Sonny changed my life not only did I if there's a career as an actor and a writer now I had complete control over everything I wanted to do if I wanted to dress in a full body green spandex suit it went in the show if I wanted to drink coke I wine out of a coke can as perhaps some of you were doing right now it went in the show and if I had a weird idea about putting mittens on kittens it went in the show this was the riskier row but I could not have made a better decision Sonny changed my life and it led to everything Horrible Bosses Pacific Rim Saturday Night Live thank you creating the job as opposed to waiting it waiting for it to be offered to me was the way to go now I think there's an obvious lesson here don't wait for your break make your break go make it happen for yourself all right one last story that I'm out here the last story of what led me from there to here is the literal act of agreeing to be here today when president hope he came to sit down with me in Los Angeles my first thought was here it comes they're gonna ask me for money yeah they haven't yet thank God but when he asked me to speak to you today I happily accepted and then as is the case with all great opportunities the reality of what I had to do began to set in dear the kids still crying people are laughing and the kids crying I'm worried about that one dear God I said to myself I'm going to have to actually give a speech I am NOT a public speaker I have a voice like a ten year old who smokes how am I going to do this I YouTube commencement speeches given by Conan O'Brien Stephen Colbert Steve Jobs this was a terrible idea their speeches were so intelligent so well informed so eloquent that only more panic began to set in what am I thinking how could I ever compare and the truth is I can't I don't host a talk show or do stand-up as an actor normally you have cut away from me a long time ago now I'm not nearly as smart as Steve Jobs I don't know how my computer works I don't even know how my toaster works and the YouTube comments oh the world of snarky comments were living in and perhaps that's the most terrifying thing of all and what we do now is permanent but I didn't back out I'm here speaking to you today and I know I will be judged by all those who care to watch on YouTube and compared but my lesson is this I don't give a I'm sorry now listen up you cannot let a fear of failure or a fear of comparison or a fear of judgment stop you from doing what's going to make you great you cannot succeed without this risk of failure you cannot have a voice without the risk of criticism and you cannot love without the risk of lost you must go out and you must take these risks everything I'm truly proud of in this life has been a terrifying prospect to me from my first play to hosting sorry and live to getting married to being a father to speaking to you today none of it comes easy and people will tell you to do what makes you happy but a lot of this has been hard work and I'm not always happy and I don't think you should do just what makes you happy I think you should do what makes you great do it's uncomfortable and scary and hard but pays off in the long run be willing to fail let yourself fail fail in the way in the place where you would want to fail fail pick yourself up and fail again because without this struggle what is your success anyway look as best we know what we have one life in it you have to trust your own voice your own ideas your honesty your vulnerability and through this you will find your way you do not have to be fearless just don't let fear stop you live like this as best you can and I guarantee you will look back on a life well-lived you are capable of greatness in your profession and more importantly in your quality of self stay hungry stay young at heart take those risks you are going to change the world around you in big ways and in small and I greatly look forward to being a part of the future that you will shape congratulations graduates and good luck you

Channel: merrimackcollege

Views: 2,462,812

Rating: 4.8405066 out of 5

Keywords: Education (Word), Charlie Day (TV Writer), Commencement Speech

Id: IulvPqb1Eus

Length: 19min 27sec (1167 seconds)

Published: Tue May 20 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/brhorning]

Definitely worth watching the whole video. Great speech.

[u/aislandlies]

I didn't expect to watch the whole thing. His last piece of advice is great.

[u/DickScream]

I wonder if he was reading a bunch of symbols drawn in crayon.

[u/pileofdeadninjas]

Kind of surreal if you've only seen him in Sunny...

[u/prsmike]

Wait...Charlie doesn't actually eat cat food?

[u/gchahal29]

Definitely one of my favorite celebrities. That was pretty inspiring.

[u/Ascf33]

Day Man

[u/The_real_pillow]

http://imgur.com/PAeZhX7

[u/TheJordanBrooks]

God damn.... the last 2ish minutes of Charlie's speech really hit home. Recently I quit my job of 5 years, where I was rising in the ranks, and really had a solid career, to work for my parents. They're starting up an out-patient rehab facility and I will be a trainer, similar to where I was in my last job, but for something that will really make a difference, and I was scared shitless to quit my solid job. After quitting, I've never been happier working in my whole life. It was scary as fuck to quit my previous job, but I'm grateful everyday that I did what I did, because I know it was what was best for, not only myself, but for my family, for the people that I'll be able to help through recovery, and most importantly, for myself. Fuck you Charlie Day for being so inspiring!