Jodi’s Journal: A message for the class of 2022
May 29, 2022
Graduates, it was easier to figure out what to say two years ago.
That’s the last time I wrote a message ahead of commencement. Take a look because it’s probably more articulate than whatever I come up with now.
Back then, we thought the tumultuous world we’d entered couldn’t last much longer. The class of 2020 got caught in the pandemic in the waning months of their high school or college experiences. Most anything they had envisioned for their end of school didn’t materialize.
It’s OK to have thrown out the plan, I told them back then, citing the words of journalist and author Anna Quindlen.
“What are the public names you recall sitting there of those people who did exactly what was considered the right thing, who followed the template, who met expectations?” Quindlen asked the 2017 graduating class of Washington University as she delivered their commencement speech.
“You cannot come up with one of them because the people we know, the people we admire, the people whose names we carve into the cornices of buildings and see on the cover of books are deviants in the best sense of that term.
“Jane Austen threw out the plan for a well‑read regency‑era woman. Frank Lloyd Wright threw out the plan for a young architect of his time. Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Enrico Fermi, Lin‑Manuel Miranda, Martin Luther King, Marie Curie, Pablo Picasso, Toni Morrison, they all threw out the plan. The right answer was safe; the wrong answer, the one no one else came up with or followed or believed in, was transformational.”
But you, class of 2022, likely have thrown out plan after plan after plan. You have lived this pandemic and the subsequent chaos of our world since halfway through your high school and college experience.
Your sophomore year, when many are just finding their stride at school, suddenly was halted. Your junior year was filled with masking and social distancing – and thank you for approaching it with a more respectful attitude than many two and three times your age.
By your senior year, we were attempting to move past all of this, but you still dealt with quarantines, vaccine controversy and the new reality that nothing you might be planning on for your short- or long-term future feels immune from disruption.
This always has been a fact of life, of course, but I still feel for you that you had to learn it so acutely and so soon.
“What do you say to graduates looking at their next step today?” I asked some friends, winding down the week, as I thought about this message.
“Don’t get too far into debt in college,” one of them responded.
“Pick a job that’s insulated, something that’s always going to be needed,” another added.
It’s worthy advice, and I think you and your predecessors in the classes of 2020 and 2021 already have taken much of this to heart.
Many of you have made exceptionally smart, responsible choices about your college and potential career paths. You’ve realized that it’s not about attending the biggest name university that will accept you, but about the bigger picture of what you will learn and experience and the subsequent potential return on your investment.
So I will instead go back to my writing crutch, Anna Quindlen, and tell you what she said next to that graduating class five years ago. I think that tells the rest of the story.
“You say to yourself sitting there, ‘I cannot expect to be Jane Austen or Frank Lloyd Wright,’ but what you can embrace is a life that feels like it belongs to you, not one made up of tiny fragments of the expectations of a society that, frankly, in most of its expectations, is not worthy of you. And that requires courage, not compliance; passion in lieu of simply plans.”
A society that is not worthy of you.
Class of 2022, we as a society should have done better for you. We, collectively, have created a world that continually challenges your most basic human need to feel safe and layers on stresses that tax your mental health.
“You can’t let fear rule you,” Quindlen added in her commencement speech. “For your own sake and for the sake of this great nation, fear is what has poisoned our culture, our community and our character.”
She’s right. And we have given you many reasons to be afraid, class of 2022, from the tragedy of last week in Texas and others like it, to a pandemic that might have made you fear losing loved ones, to a digital universe that might make you fear you missed out or didn’t measure up sometimes.
Now, despite that, we need you to go forward fearlessly. We need you to challenge us, to innovate and to not be afraid to make the big bets and take the risks that lead business and society into better futures.
And you already have shown you’ve got what it takes in spades. Members of the class of 2022, high school and college, are and have been part of our reporting team. As I’ve helped them learn to tell stories, I’ve learned more about the story I think you’ll collectively tell as you move into your next phase of life.
I know how you care about your physical and mental health and the health of those around you. You care about our planet. You care about working for and doing business with organizations that share your values. You care about being able to be your full, authentic self, and you don’t just accept others for who they are but you support them. We need you to carry all of that with you no matter what direction you pursue. We need you to show kindness in a world that can struggle to show it back.
I’ve also been fortunate to meet many of you graduating this weekend who were not born in the United States. In some cases, you began high school knowing little English and with experiences in your past most of us can’t begin to imagine.
And I’ve watched you light up talking about your futures. You’re pursuing education and careers in nursing, construction, banking, K-12 education, accounting and so much more. Thank goodness for our community that you’re here and you are taking those next steps.
I hope you all will consider making Sioux Falls part of your life beyond your high school or college selves. If you’re leaving, come see us in a few years. I promise there will be parts of this town you won’t recognize, and you will have the chance to put your own mark on it as we grow.
Congratulations, class of 2022. The world is waiting for you.
