WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:01.500 --> 00:00:03.530 Congratulations to the Class of 2020. 00:00:03.530 --> 00:00:07.430 Now, before I begin, I'd like to ask you to do one thing. 00:00:07.430 --> 00:00:11.630 If you're watching this with your family and friends, please take a moment to thank them 00:00:11.630 --> 00:00:13.059 for their support. 00:00:13.059 --> 00:00:17.770 No one makes it to graduation alone, and I hope you'll take this opportunity to thank 00:00:17.770 --> 00:00:19.410 those who helped you along the way. 00:00:19.410 --> 00:00:23.340 And I'm serious-- I'm happy to wait a few seconds. 00:00:27.260 --> 00:00:32.660 OK, now, if this were a normal year, and I were giving a traditional graduation speech, 00:00:32.660 --> 00:00:37.980 I'd begin by recounting all that you've experienced during your time here, like electrifying national 00:00:37.980 --> 00:00:43.050 championships, for example, or the terrifying Unite the Right rally, or the bewildering 00:00:43.050 --> 00:00:45.970 exodus from Grounds this past March. 00:00:45.970 --> 00:00:51.690 I'd rhapsodize about the Blue Ridge mountains and Bodo's Bagels, the faculty and friendships, 00:00:51.690 --> 00:00:55.720 Madison House and Mad Ball, the Range, and the Rotunda. 00:00:55.720 --> 00:01:00.670 We probably share our laugh about streaking the lawn and a knowing exchange about the 00:01:00.670 --> 00:01:03.070 complexity of Jefferson. 00:01:03.070 --> 00:01:08.070 I'd give a nod to your collective futures and the uncertain world awaiting you, while 00:01:08.070 --> 00:01:13.300 expressing my confidence-- which is sincere-- that you'll figure it out and make the world 00:01:13.300 --> 00:01:15.680 a better place along the way. 00:01:15.680 --> 00:01:18.720 But this is no normal year, and this is not a normal ceremony. 00:01:18.720 --> 00:01:23.170 And in fact, I've been told I only have about six to seven minutes for this speech so as 00:01:23.170 --> 00:01:27.850 not to bore you to tears and cause you to turn this whole program off. 00:01:27.850 --> 00:01:33.150 Which is why I need to dispense with the traditional messages of graduation and focus on a more 00:01:33.150 --> 00:01:37.580 pressing topic-- coffee, or at least the idea of coffee. 00:01:37.580 --> 00:01:39.210 Let me explain. 00:01:39.210 --> 00:01:45.540 In the summer of 1991, my now-wife, then-girlfriend Katie, a fellow Wahoo, by the way-- Katie 00:01:45.540 --> 00:01:50.659 and I went on a three-day camping trip in Alaska with Katie's sister and her sister's 00:01:50.659 --> 00:01:54.060 boyfriend, a Norwegian guy named Inge, who was a bush pilot. 00:01:54.060 --> 00:01:59.439 Inge flew us to a remote cabin miles from any trace of civilization. 00:01:59.439 --> 00:02:03.930 The first afternoon and evening were glorious, and all was well until the next morning when 00:02:03.930 --> 00:02:08.649 we awoke, and I discovered that we had forgotten to bring coffee. 00:02:08.649 --> 00:02:13.190 Now, I won't say whose fault it was because it's just not that important to rehash the 00:02:13.190 --> 00:02:17.230 fact that Katie assured me she had packed the coffee before we left. 00:02:17.230 --> 00:02:22.340 What matters is that for the next three days, Katie and I experienced caffeine withdrawal, 00:02:22.340 --> 00:02:25.670 which is, in a word, unpleasant. 00:02:25.670 --> 00:02:30.620 When we returned to civilization, Katie and I made quite different resolutions. 00:02:30.620 --> 00:02:34.590 She resolved never to become addicted to caffeine again. 00:02:34.590 --> 00:02:40.270 I resolved never again to be more than 100 yards away from coffee. 00:02:40.270 --> 00:02:43.970 You might think the moral of this story is that Katie is a stronger and better person 00:02:43.970 --> 00:02:45.069 than I am. 00:02:45.069 --> 00:02:47.940 That is true, but that's not my point. 00:02:47.940 --> 00:02:52.430 My point is that I've kept my resolution, and coffee has continued to play a crucial 00:02:52.430 --> 00:02:53.599 role in my life. 00:02:53.599 --> 00:02:58.580 It's the main character in my morning ritual, where I make a cup of coffee, greet our two 00:02:58.580 --> 00:03:03.000 dogs, sit next to the window, take a look at the newspaper and watch the birds at our 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:06.300 feeder, while our dogs nudge me to take them out. 00:03:06.300 --> 00:03:11.349 Once I finish my coffee, I'm awake enough to go on a run, which in turn makes me ready 00:03:11.349 --> 00:03:13.550 to face the day ahead. 00:03:13.550 --> 00:03:20.190 I tell you this story because deprivation has a way of helping you focus on what's important. 00:03:20.190 --> 00:03:25.420 You've all been deprived of a great deal over these last couple of months, as have we all. 00:03:25.420 --> 00:03:29.230 We've had to do without much of what makes up our normal lives. 00:03:29.230 --> 00:03:32.870 My guess is that this has helped you think about what's important to you, what you can 00:03:32.870 --> 00:03:35.510 live without, and what you can't. 00:03:35.510 --> 00:03:40.810 And my hope is that as you prepare to reenter the world at some point and to start the next 00:03:40.810 --> 00:03:46.379 chapter of your lives, you're thinking hard about what you want to bring with you. 00:03:46.379 --> 00:03:50.410 If it helps, you might even think about a line from a Bruce Springsteen song, as I'm 00:03:50.410 --> 00:03:51.970 want to do myself. 00:03:51.970 --> 00:03:54.489 The song is called "The Land of Hope and Dreams." 00:03:54.489 --> 00:03:58.970 It's about a couple who, for unstated reasons, quickly leave their home to board a train 00:03:58.970 --> 00:04:00.810 in search of a better life. 00:04:00.810 --> 00:04:06.159 And the main character says to his partner, "We'll take what we can carry, and we'll leave 00:04:06.159 --> 00:04:07.850 the rest." 00:04:07.850 --> 00:04:11.709 Many of you faced a similar challenge when we asked you to quickly vacate your dorms 00:04:11.709 --> 00:04:12.709 and apartments. 00:04:12.709 --> 00:04:16.310 What did you carry, I wonder. 00:04:16.310 --> 00:04:17.800 What did you leave behind? 00:04:17.800 --> 00:04:19.610 And did you miss any of it? 00:04:19.610 --> 00:04:25.000 More generally, what have you discovered or rediscovered during this time of isolation 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:29.740 that you want to carry with you when the world reopens and your life restarts? 00:04:29.740 --> 00:04:33.070 And what, in particular, do you want to carry from UVA? 00:04:33.070 --> 00:04:37.490 Now, if I had 15 more minutes or so, I might offer some suggestions about what you should 00:04:37.490 --> 00:04:40.330 carry with you, especially from UVA. 00:04:40.330 --> 00:04:45.990 I might suggest that you carry forward the values of this place, like trust, honor, integrity, 00:04:45.990 --> 00:04:50.810 and inclusion; that you bring with you the willingness and capacity to build bridges; 00:04:50.810 --> 00:04:55.930 that you carry forward qualities that are the hallmarks of a great and good education, 00:04:55.930 --> 00:05:02.180 like skepticism, so you don't believe everything you read, even when you wrote it, and empathy, 00:05:02.180 --> 00:05:06.630 so you can see the world through the eyes of others, and passion, so you'll have something 00:05:06.630 --> 00:05:12.060 other than coffee that makes you excited to get up in the morning, and vulnerability, 00:05:12.060 --> 00:05:15.830 because when you drill down, that's at the heart of all true friendships. 00:05:15.830 --> 00:05:21.240 If we had more time, I might also tell you that there's one other thing about my coffee 00:05:21.240 --> 00:05:23.560 ritual that I forgot to mention. 00:05:23.560 --> 00:05:30.680 I pour my coffee every morning into a mug that says, "I Heart Dad," which roughly translates 00:05:30.680 --> 00:05:32.990 to "I love Dad." 00:05:32.990 --> 00:05:38.620 My daughter Phoebe gave me this mug a couple of years ago, and as corny as it might sound, 00:05:38.620 --> 00:05:44.139 when I look at that mug, I remind myself that there are people in this world whom I love 00:05:44.139 --> 00:05:47.400 deeply and those who love me in return. 00:05:47.400 --> 00:05:50.960 And I remind myself to be grateful for both. 00:05:50.960 --> 00:05:56.550 This gratitude, I would tell you, is what I try to carry forward every day, and I'm 00:05:56.550 --> 00:05:59.390 pretty sure I could leave the rest behind. 00:05:59.390 --> 00:06:03.680 And so you would get that it's not really about the coffee after all. 00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:06.710 The coffee is just a conduit. 00:06:06.710 --> 00:06:10.530 But there's not time for all of that, and besides, I shouldn't answer the question of 00:06:10.530 --> 00:06:13.760 what you should carry with you and what you should leave behind. 00:06:13.760 --> 00:06:16.930 It's far better that you answer it for yourself. 00:06:16.930 --> 00:06:22.580 My only hope is that because of your time here, you have the proclivity to ask the question 00:06:22.580 --> 00:06:27.639 repeatedly, if need be, and that you have the ability to answer it; that because of 00:06:27.639 --> 00:06:33.430 your time at UVA, you're in a better position to know what you should carry with you and 00:06:33.430 --> 00:06:38.060 what you should leave behind; that you're in a better position, in other words, to answer 00:06:38.060 --> 00:06:43.940 not just the age-old question of what is the good life, but the more specific question 00:06:43.940 --> 00:06:46.330 of what is my good life? 00:06:46.330 --> 00:06:51.919 Because at the end of the day, our basic business at UVA is to help people live their very best 00:06:51.919 --> 00:06:57.729 lives, and I'm pretty sure that if you know what to carry with you and what to leave behind, 00:06:57.729 --> 00:06:59.800 you will do just that. 00:06:59.800 --> 00:07:01.680 Congratulations, and best of luck.