my high school graduation speech

i had to dig this out of the old files after having a cool discussion with gretch tonight. i haven't looked at this in years - so it should be interesting...

"i think if i asked everyone here today what he or she wanted from life, i'm sure happiness would be on everyone's list somewhere. it seems that everyone wants to be happy, but it's so easy to live your life and one day find yourself trapped in a world where all your dreams have been forgotten. maybe circumstances or bad decision making has put you in this place where you don't even recognize yourself. you've forgotten what makes you happy; you've forgotten your bliss.

in joseph campbell's the power of myth, he compares success to true happiness. he says, "you may have success in life, but then just think of it-what kind of life was it? what good was it - you've never done the thing you wanted to do in all your life...go where your body and soul want to go. when you have the feeling of bliss then stay with it, and don't let anyone throw you off."
success does not always mean fulfillment or happiness. in many cases, it can mean the exact opposite. but when people find the thing that makes them interested in life, when they find their bliss, success will come naturally. they will become aware of the beauty that had always been surrounding them.

campbell goes on to say that "if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. when you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open the doors to you." he says, "follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and the doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be."

i hope that all of us, if we haven't already, will find our bliss. whether it be running a 5k in the rain, writing our every thought in a beat up spiral notebook, tending to roses, chasing tornadoes, watching black and white movies, constructing impossible bulletin boards, or contemplating the blissful existence of cows... whatever your bliss may be, i encourage all of you to cling to it as hard as you can, because it will ultimately save you in your journey ahead."