Perfect Commencement Speaker Gives Perfect Commencement Speech

Jill Abramson is unemployed. Over the years, she has worked hard, succeeded, been fired; now, in the process of trying to figure out What’s Next?, she is drawing on stores of resilience. Naturally, this makes her the perfect Commencement Speaker to address the Class of 2014:

Her speech was about “resilience,” she said, and was inspired by a call from her sister the day after she was, in no uncertain terms, “fired.” As proud as her father would have been to see her appointed the first female executive editor in Times history, “it meant more to our father to see us deal with a setback and see us try to bounce back than how we handled our successes,” Abramson said. “Show what you are made of, he’d say.”

“I’m talking to anyone who’s been dumped, not gotten the job you really wanted, or received those horrible rejection letters from grad school,” she continued. “You know the sting of losing or not getting something you really want. When that happens show what you are made of.” Abramson referenced other challenges she’s faced recently, including getting hit by a truck in Times Square seven years ago. “You may begin to call me Calamity Jill, but stay with me here,” she said. … “What’s next for me?” she added. “I don’t know, so I’m in exactly the same boat as many of you.”

Uncertainty! Rejection! Trying hard, being deserving, and still not getting what you want! This is what we all face — throughout our lives but with particular force when we graduate from college and join a workforce that doesn’t care about our self-esteem or offer Trigger Warnings. NOTE: Why is our culture so resistant to “trigger warnings” when we’re all about ratings on movies, TV, and video games? Is it because, as Shine argues in the above link, we see TWs as yet another attempt by the joyless PC lady mafia to take fun away and tell us what to do?

Anyway, resilience makes a great subject for a commencement speech because, to some extent, how you react to the inevitable setbacks of your 20s is the only element of your 20s you can control. Like Samuel Becket famously said, “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” Here are some more inspirational quotes about failure. You’re welcome.

photo via Quotes Pictures.com

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