Help!

Alright folks...I really need your help.  Over the past few weeks, and especially over the past few days my brain has slowly been turning into a completely garbled pile of mush as I've tried to write my graduation talk.  This has honestly been SO incredibly difficult for me for some reason.  Then yesterday I had to go and read the following quote from Elder Maxwell:

"The patient person assumes that what others have to say is worth listening to.  A patient person is not so chronically eager to put forth his or her own opinions."

Of course I took it out of context and went from not being able to choose what to say in my speech to feeling like I don't have anything worth saying.

Yeah...pretty much my brain is completely discombobulated.

So, if any of you have any time at all to look over what I have and give me suggestions I would be ever so grateful because at this point I have written so many different versions that I can't tell what is worthwhile and what is garbage and I feel like I have no ability at all to articulate what I am trying to say.  I also really need to cut about 30 more seconds out so if you have any ideas about that I would appreciate it too.

Fresh eyes and fresh minds are sorely needed!

Please tear it to shreds.  Let me know if my logic is flawed, my wording is ridiculous and inappropriate, my ideas are fuzzy, my transitions are weak, etc...etc...

Thanks!  (Oh, and by the way if you are planning on attending graduation please don't read it yet...I don't want people being scared away from attending the ceremony on account of a terrible draft of my speech).

HERE IT IS!

Over these past few weeks I have come to realize that speaking at graduation is a pretty daunting task. A graduation speaker is supposed to be simultaneously inspiring, entertaining, memorable, and most importantly…brief (because we all know what still has to come after the talks). So as I was worrying about what I should say and how I should say it I turned to my friends for advice. Their responses to my request just made me laugh. Instead of actually giving helpful suggestions, nearly every single one of them got really excited and told me that I should somehow figure out how to mention them (several even offered me a money as incentive).

While it may not be a financially wise decision, I have decided to forgo reading off a list of my friends’ names, although ironically they are (in a way) who and what I want to talk about.

Recently as I was preparing a semester-by-semester summary of my “undergraduate experience” at BYU to include in my honors portfolio it really hit me how blessed I was to be able to take advantage of so many incredible opportunities throughout my time as a student here. These experiences put me in a wide variety of new, sometimes scary, but always exciting circumstances.

This exercise also reminded me what a completely different person I am now from when I started. That somewhat awkward, shy, naïve, (but excited!) nerd of a freshman who thought she had her life all planned and figured out is completely gone (well, maybe except for the nerd part). As I’ve tried to figure out exactly what caused this gradual but drastic transformation I realized that while all of the opportunities I had were amazing, it wasn’t the circumstances I was in that gave me the strength to change, but instead it was the interactions I had with the people I met along the way that have slowly shaped me into who I am now.

C.S. Lewis illustrated this concept perfectly when he asserted:
“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal…but it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit” (The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses [1980], 19).

I think we can safely add…assignments, exams, deadlines, grades, jobs, money…these are mortal. And even though these “mortal” things are necessary, it is so critical to remember that the people who surround us every day of our lives from the janitor we share an elevator ride with to our closest friends to a famous scientist we may meet in passing are all immortal souls who each have unique experiences, perspectives, and insights that we can benefit from if we choose to overcome our own prejudices, fears, and insecurities.

Just as “there are no ordinary people” there are no ordinary moments in life, or at least there never has to be.
As Elder Maxwell said, “We must look carefully…not only at life’s large defining moments but also at the seemingly small moments. Even small acts and brief conversations count, if only incrementally, in the constant shaping of souls.” He continues by asking, “What will we bring to all of those moments small and large? Will we do what we can to make our presence count as a needed constant in such fleeting moments, even in micro ways?”

I will never regret those moments when I decided to choose immortal encounters over pressing mortal demands. When I chose to spend all night talking with my roommates about precious gospel principles despite the big test I had the next day. When I chose to spend Saturday throwing a barbeque with the girl I visit taught who was having a difficult time feeling like she fit in instead of working on a project that was due on Monday. When I chose to extend my office hours to help a student struggling with the material in the class as well as personal issues instead of finishing the assignment that was due in my next class.

Those, among many others, are the encounters that have shaped my soul over these past few years. And those pressing mortal demands? The test, the project, the assignment? I honestly don’t even remember what happened with them, because in the grand scheme of things they didn’t even matter.

I am also grateful for others who chose the immortal over mortal where I was concerned. The professor who, despite being overwhelmed by more important matters took the time to go over a paper line-by-line to help one frustrated underclassman understand how to improve her writing skills. My friend who would always drag me out of the lab at lunchtime to get something to eat despite my protests that the Wilkinson center was just too far away from the Widstoe Building to make it worth it. The famous scientist-physician who interrupted his conversation with James Watson (of Watson and Crick) to talk with and later offer a position to an intimidated undergraduate from BYU who wanted to work in his lab.

These people are just a few out of hundreds who have made their presence count in my life in small and large ways whether they were aware of it or not.

So what is my advice? That memorable bit that I hope you’ll actually take away from all of this? For that I’ll turn to Horace’s famous directive “carpe diem.” Though usually translated as “seize the day” I prefer the alternate translation “pluck the day” or my favorite, “harvest the day.”

So go out and harvest today because it is a good day! But please don’t forget to harvest tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after. Whether you are going from here straight into a high-powered, high-paying job, graduate school, medical school, or to flip burgers at McDonalds, remember that those circumstances are merely mortal…but what you do with the immortal encounters in life on a moment to moment basis will shape your soul and the souls of those around you.

These soul-shaping opportunities are there if we will only pluck them! It is so easy to get discouraged by the fruits that haven’t yet blossomed in our lives (especially if we find ourselves working at McDonalds), but if we are constantly waiting by the tree that hasn’t yet born fruit we will miss out on all of the opportunities, moments, and encounters that the Lord has provided for us today to help us become who we need to be to harvest the fruits of tomorrow.

Thanks guys...you're the best!