By+John+G.Roberts

Supreme Court Justice John Roberts Unconventional Speech to His Sons Graduating Class

Rain， somebody said， is like confetti1 from heaven. So even the heavens are celebrating this morning， joining the rest of us at this wonderful commencement2 ceremony. Before we go any further， graduates， you have an important task to perform because behind you are your parents and guardians. Two or three or four years ago， they drove into Cardigan3， dropped you off， helped you get settled and then turned around and drove back out the gates. It was an extraordinary sacrifice for them. They drove down the trail of tears back to an emptier and lonelier house. They did that because the decision about your education， they knew， was about you. It was not about them.That sacrifice and others they made have brought you to this point. But this morning is not just about you. It is also about them， so I hope you will stand up and turn around and give them a great round of applause. Please.

Congratulations， class of 2017. Youve reached an important milestone4. Now around the country today at colleges， high schools， middle schools， commencement speakers are standing before impatient graduates. And they are almost always saying the same things. They will say that today is a commencement exercise. “It is a beginning， not an end. You should look forward.” And I think that is true enough， however， I think if youre going to look forward to figure out where youre going， its good to know where youve been and to look back as well.

Now the commencement speakers will typically also wish you good luck and extend good wishes to you. I will not do that， and Ill tell you why. From time to time in the years to come， I hope you will be treated unfairly， so that you will come to know the value of justice. I hope that you will suffer betrayal because that will teach you the importance of loyalty. Sorry to say， but I hope you will be lonely from time to time so that you dont take friends for granted. I wish you bad luck， again， from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either. And when you lose， as you will from time to time， I hope every now and then， your opponent will gloat over your failure.5 It is a way for you to understand the importance of sportsmanship6. I hope youll be ignored so you know the importance of listening to others， and I hope you will have just enough pain to learn compassion. Whether I wish these things or not， theyre going to happen. And whether you benefit from them or not will depend upon your ability to see the message in your misfortunes.

Now commencement speakers are also expected to give some advice. They give grand advice， and they give some useful tips. The most common grand advice they give is for you to be yourself. You should understand what that means. Unless you are perfect， it does not mean dont make any changes. In a certain sense， you should not be yourself. You should try to become something better. People say “be yourself” because they want you to resist the impulse to conform to what others want you to be.7

The Greek philosopher Socrates8 said， “The unexamined life is not worth living.” And while “just do it” might be a good motto for some things， its not a good motto when its trying to figure out how to live your life that is before you.9 And one important clue to living a good life is to not to try to live the good life.10

So thats the deep advice. Now some tips as you get ready to go to your new school. Over the last couple of years， I have gotten to know many of you young men pretty well， and I know you are good guys. But you are also privileged11 young men. And if you werent privileged when you came here， you are privileged now because you have been here. My advice is： Dont act like it.

When you get to your new school， walk up and introduce yourself to the person who is raking the leaves， shoveling the snow or emptying the trash.12 Learn their name and call them by their name during your time at the school. Another piece of advice： When you pass by people you dont recognize on the walks， smile， look them in the eye and say hello. The worst thing that will happen is that you will become known as the young man who smiles and says hello， and that is not a bad thing to start with.

The last bit of advice Ill give you is very simple， but I think it could make a big difference in your life. Once a week， you should write a note to someone. Not an email.A note on a piece of paper. It will take you exactly 10 minutes. Talk to an adult， let them tell you what a stamp is. You can put the stamp on the envelope. Again， 10 minutes， once a week. I will help you， right now. I will dictate to you the first note you should write. It will say，“Dear [fill in the name of a teacher at Cardigan Mountain School].” Say： “I have started at this new school. We are reading [blank] in English. Football or soccer practice is hard， but Im enjoying it. Thank you for teaching me.”Put it in an envelope， put a stamp on it and send it. It will mean a great deal to people who—for reasons most of us cannot contemplate13—have dedicated themselves to teaching middle school boys. As I said， that will take you exactly 10 minutes a week. By the end of the school year， you will have sent notes to 40 people. Forty people will feel a little more special because of what you did， and they will think you are very special because of what you did. No one else is going to carry that dividend14 during your time at school.

Enough advice. I would like to end by reading some important lyrics15. I cited the Greek philosopher Socrates earlier. These lyrics are from the great American philosopher， Bob Dylan16. Theyre almost 50 years old. He wrote them for his son， Jesse， who he was missing while he was on tour. It lists the hopes that a parent might have for a son and for a daughter. Theyre also good goals for a son and a daughter. The wishes are beautiful， theyre timeless. Theyre universal. So these are the lyrics from “Forever Young” by Bob Dylan：

May God bless you and keep you always

May your wishes all come true

May you always do for others

And let others do for you

May you build a ladder to the stars

And climb on every rung17

And may you stay forever young…

Thank you.

1. confetti： //（在聚會、游行等場合拋撒的）五彩紙屑。

2. commencement：（大學(xué)或高中的）畢業(yè)典禮。

3. Cardigan： 全稱為Cardigan Mountain School，卡迪根山中學(xué)，美國私立寄宿制男校。

4. milestone： 里程碑。

5. opponent： 對手，敵手；gloat over： 為？？幸災(zāi)樂禍，洋洋得意。

6. sportsmanship： 體育精神，亦稱為公平競技（Fair-play），一種重要的體育價值觀，希望賽事能在公平、尊重和合倫理的環(huán)境下進行。

7. 人們說“做自己”是因為他們希望你不要屈從于他人的意愿。impulse： 沖動；conform：遵照，順從。

8. Socrates： 蘇格拉底（公元前469年—公元前399年），古希臘哲學(xué)家、教育家。

9. 對某些事情來說，“just do it”是個不錯的建議，但除非你確定自己想過什么樣的生活，這個建議要慎用。motto： 格言，箴言。

10. 幸福生活很重要的一條經(jīng)驗是：不要為了所謂的“好生活”而生活。

11. privileged： 享有特權(quán)的，優(yōu)越的。

12. rake：（用耙子）耙（或收集）；shovel： 用鏟挖，鏟走。

13. contemplate： 仔細考慮，深思。

14. dividend： 效益，回報。

15. lyric： 歌詞，抒情短詩。

16. Bob Dylan： 鮑勃·迪倫（1941— ），美國唱作人、藝術(shù)家和作家，2016年獲諾貝爾文學(xué)獎，因其為美國歌曲傳統(tǒng)帶來了全新的詩意表達。

17. rung： 梯子橫檔，梯級。