Always put your shopping cart back, and other advice for graduates

Do you remember what advice was handed to you by the speaker at your graduation(s), from grammar school, high school, college or graduate school?

Neither do I.

I can’t imagine a more difficult job than being the featured speaker at, say, a college graduation where your intended audience already knows everything there is to know about everything.

I’ve caught snippets of graduation advice the past few days from Tom Brokaw, Michelle Obama and others.

So it is this time of the year that I wonder just what sage advice I’d tell a graduating class of high school seniors or even doctoral candidates. Wisely, no institution of higher learning has asked me to be its graduation speaker.

But to the student who has met the requirements for a college degree, I’d say this is probably the easiest time of your life. It all gets more difficult and complicated from here out.

Earlier this year I expressed my chagrin over not being picked as “sexiest man alive” by some major magazine that hangs at the checkout counter in the supermarket. My wife’s (and Dr. Phil’s) advice: “Just get over it.”

Jim Stecher, former superintendent of the Atascadero Unified School District, when asked his philosophy of life, usually told students, “There is no free lunch.”

And that, I suppose, is what I’d tell a class of graduates. I’d add that life isn’t always fair, you aren’t going to get a bonus just because you ”tried your best” but achieved nothing, and doing the right thing many times goes unappreciated and unnoticed, but you shouldn’t abandon doing it.

I would admonish my graduates to be responsible parents, be kind to the earth, be mindful of its limited resources, and vote in every election, at every level, from your hometown mayor and council to the county supervisors, state offices and federal seats. Every election is important, and democracy requires your input as a voter.

I believe that every person headed to a job following graduation owes it to the company that employs him or her to strive to be the very best worker they’ve ever seen; don’t go to work assuming you are entitled to anything. You earn that as you grow in the job.

And finally, don’t be the guy or gal who shoves the shopping cart into the flower bed or against the car next to you instead of walking it back to where you found it.

It’s all about that responsibility thing that for most of us began with, “Clean up your room.”

This story was originally published June 1, 2015 at 9:25 AM with the headline "Always put your shopping cart back, and other advice for graduates."