I want our young people
to know that they matter that they belong. So don't be afraid You hear me? young people don't be afraid Be focused Be determined Be hopeful Be empowered. Empower yourselves with a good education then get out there and use that education to build a country worthy
of your boundless promise. Lead by example with hope; never fear Our greatness has never ever come from sitting
back and feeling entitled to what we have It's never come from folks who
climb the ladder of success or who happened to be born near the top and
then pull the ladder up after themselves No, ah ah Our greatness has always come
from people who expect nothing and take nothing for granted. Folks who work hard for what they have,
then reach back and help others after them. Success isn't about how your life looks to others it's about how it feels to you. We realize that being successful
isn't about being impressive It's about being inspired and and that's what it means to be your true self. It means looking inside yourself and being honest about what you truly
enjoy doing because graduates I can promise you that you will never be happy
plodding through someone else's idea of success. Success is only meaningful and enjoyable if it feels like your own. You should never view your
challenges as a disadvantage. Instead it's important for you to understand that your experience facing
and overcoming adversity is actually one of your biggest advantages and I know that because I've seen it myself Not just as a student working
my way through school but years later when I,
after I came, before I came to the White House and I
worked as a dean at a college. In that role I encountered
students who had every advantage. Their parents paid their full tuition,
they lived in beautiful campus dorms they had every material possession a college kid
could want; cars, computers, spending money. But when some of them got their first
bad grade, they just fell apart they lost it because they were ill-equipped
to handle their first encounter with disappointment or falling short But graduates, as you all know Life will put many obstacles in your path
that are far worse than a bad grade. You'll, you'll have unreasonable bosses
and difficult clients and patients. You’ll experience illnesses and
losses, crises and setbacks that will come out of nowhere
and knock you off your feet. but unlike so many other young people you have already developed the
resilience and the maturity that you need to pick yourself up and dust
yourself off and keep moving through the pain keep moving forward. You may be feeling some real anxiety about venturing out into the
world beyond these walls And I'm not gonna lie to you for many of you this is going
to be a pretty big transition. In fact, I think Dr. Martin Luther King described it well in his commencement
address in 65 when he declared quote “today you bid farewell to the safe
security of the academic environment you prepare to continue your journey
on the clamorous highways of life.” We all feel at times a little bit lost and we all have some kind of emptiness
that we're searching to fill and often it is only through serving others that
we find what's been missing in our own lives. And like so many of you through service I was able to find what
I needed and carve a path for my life that truly felt like my own. And the truth is, those seminars
where you explored new ideas those late-night conversations
where you challenged each other and learned from each other, after all of that. You might find yourself a little dismayed
by the clamor outside these walls the name-calling, the negative ads,
the folks yelling at each other on TV the power of inventing the future. I just want to pause for
a moment on the word invent because the term- phrase
isn't, succeed in the future it's not plan for the future or do
the best you can in the future. it's invent the future. and with those three words
comes a simple message a call to chart your own course
and live life on your own terms. and that's a lesson that I first
learned back when I was a teenager. And some of you may have
grown up like I did in neighborhoods where kids had -very few
of them- had the chance to go to college where being teased for doing well
in school, was just a fact of life where well-meaning but misguided folks
questioned whether a girl with my background could get into the kinds of
colleges I dreamed of attending. After being surrounded by people who are so dedicated to serving others and
making the world a better place You might feel a little
discouraged by the polarization and gridlock that too often characterizes
our politics and civic life. And in the face of all that clamor You might have an overwhelming instinct to
just run the other way as fast as you can. You might be tempted to find a
community of like-minded folks and work with them on causes you care
about and just tune out all of the noise. I worked hard and I did my best
to tune out those voices of doubt including the ones inside my own head And eventually, I was accepted to Princeton and I got that education that
my dad had always dreamed of. But the truth is graduates, there will always be folks who make assumptions
about you, based on superficial things like where you're from or what you're wearing
or how you look There will always be folks who judge you
based on just one thing that you say or do folks who define you based
on one isolated incident. I want to urge you to do just the opposite. Today, I want to suggest that if you truly wish to carry on the Oberlin legacy
of service and social justice Then you need to run to and
not away from the noise. today, I want to urge you to actively seek out the most contentious, polarized,
gridlocked places you can find. Because so often throughout our history those have been the places
where progress really happens. The places where minds are
changed, lives transformed. In the end, people can only
define you if you let them. In the end, It's up to each
of us to define ourselves. It's up to each of us to invent our own future with the choices we make
and the actions we take. To succumb to feelings of despair and
anger only means that in the end we lose. Those feelings are not an excuse to
just throw up our hands and give up. Not an excuse, they are not
an excuse to lose hope. But here's the thing our history provides us with a better story a better blueprint for how we can win. it teaches us that when we pull ourselves
out of the lowest emotional depths and we channel our frustrations into
studying and organizing and banding together then we can build ourselves and our communities up. we can take on those deep
rooted problems and together together we can overcome
anything that stands in our way. Nothing, and I mean nothing is going to
stop you from fulfilling your dreams. And you deserve every last one of the
successes that I know you will have. But I also want to be very clear that with
those successes comes a set of obligations To share the lessons you've
learned here at this school. The obligation to use the opportunities
you've had to help others. That means raising your hand when you
get a seat in that board meeting and asking the question “Well, whose
voices aren't being heard here?” “What ideas are we missing?” It means adding your voice
to our national conversation speaking out for our most
cherished values of liberty opportunity, inclusion and respect the values
that you've been living here at this school. It means reaching back to help young people who've
been left out and left behind helping them prepare for college,
helping them pay for college. So I want you all to go out there be great, build great lives for yourself enjoy the liberties that you
have in this great country pursue your own version of happiness. And please, please, always, always do your part to help others do the same.
