Oprah's Message to the Class of 2020: "What Will Your Essential Service Be?"
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Despite the coronavirus pandemic leading to school closures and cancelled in-person graduations, there's a silver lining for the Class of 2020. To help the graduates properly celebrate this momentous occasion—albeit at home—Oprah delivered a virtual commencement address on May 15, 2020 as part of the "#Graduation 2020: Facebook and Instagram Celebrate the Class of 2020" event.
In addition to Oprah, many other famous faces took part in the Facebook Watch ceremony, including: Mindy Kaling, Malala Yousafzai, Amy Schumer, Hugh Jackman, Gloria Estefan, Kristen Bell, Cardi B, Lil Nas X, Miley Cyrus, Simone Biles, Awkwafina, Yara Shahidi, Andy Cohen, Matthew McConaughey and more.
Olympic gymnast Simone Biles cheered on all those graduating this year: "I know you’re missing what is supposed to be your medal ceremony, but that ceremony doesn’t change a thing. You’ve already won." And Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala's message was about responding to tough challenges:"When we go through some tough challenges we learn about who we are and what we value in our life. So, I’m hoping the future will be even better as we become more responsible people."
What was Oprah's message? After decades of giving inspiring speeches, Lady O was chock full of wisdom for graduates who are going off into the world during this tumultuous time.
"Of course this is not the graduation ceremony you envisioned," Oprah began, after being introduced by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. "But even though there may not be pomp because of our circumstances, never has a graduating class been called to step into the future with more purpose, vision, passion and energy, and hope." While acknowledging that there's no easy path forward and a lot of uncertainty ahead, she reminded us that "it’s really okay to not have all the answers."
Pointing out that the pandemic exposed vast inequalities, she challenged the Class of 2020 to use their power, their voice, and their vote to help society find a new and better normal as we emerge from COVID-19. "Use your education to begin to heal our afflictions, by applying the best of what you’ve learned in your head and felt in your heart."
And in a time where the essential work of teachers, health care professionals, delivery drivers, food providers and more are keeping us all afloat, she poised an important question to the graduates: "What will your essential service be?"
Watch and read Oprah's full speech to the Class of 2020 below.
"I know you may not feel like it, but you are indeed the chosen class, for such a time as this…the class of 2020. You are also a united class—the pandemic class that has the entire world striving to graduate with you.
Of course this is not the graduation ceremony you envisioned: You’ve been dreaming about the walk across the stage, your family and friends cheering you on, the caps flung joyously in the air. But even though there may not be pomp because of our circumstances, never has a graduating class been called to step into the future with more purpose, vision, passion and energy, and hope.
Your graduation ceremony is taking place with so many luminaries celebrating you on the world’s Facebook stage. I am just honored to join them and salute you.
The word graduate comes from the Latin gradus, meaning “a step toward something.” In the early 15th century, “graduation” was a term used in alchemy to mean “a tempering or refining.” Every one of us is now being called to graduate, to step toward something—even though we don’t know what! Every one of us is likewise now being called to temper the parts of ourselves that must fall away, to refine who we are, how we define success, and what is genuinely meaningful. And you--the real graduates on this day: you will lead us.
I wish I could tell you I know the path forward. I don’t. There is so much uncertainty. In truth, there always has been. What I do know is that the same values, fortitude, and determination (and I know you’re determined, that’s why we’re celebrating your diplomas today)….the same guts and imagination that got you to this moment—all those things are the very things that will sustain you through whatever is coming.
It’s vital that you learn, and we all learn, to be at peace with the discomfort of stepping into the unknown. It’s really okay to not have all the answers. The answers will come—for sure—if you can accept “not knowing“ long enough to get still, and stay still long enough for new thoughts to take root in your more quiet, deeper, truer self. The noise of the world drowns out the sound of you; you have to get still to listen.
So can you use this disorder that COVID-19 has wrought? Can you treat it as an uninvited guest that’s come into our midst to re-order our way of being? Can you, the class of 2020, show us not how to put the pieces back together again, but how to create a new and more evolved normal, a world more just, kind, beautiful, tender, luminous, creative, whole?
We need you to do this because the pandemic has illuminated the vast systemic inequities that have defined life for too many for too long. For poor communities without adequate access to healthcare, inequality is a pre-existing condition. For immigrant communities forced to hide in the shadows, inequality is a pre-existing condition. For incarcerated people with no ability to social-distance, inequality is a pre-existing condition. For every person burdened by bias and bigotry, for every black man and woman living in their American skin, fearful to even go for a jog, inequality is a pre-existing condition.
You have the power to stand for, to fight for—and vote for—healthier conditions that will create a healthier society. This moment is your invitation to use your education to begin to heal our afflictions, by applying the best of what you’ve learned in your head and felt in your heart.
This moment has shown us what Dr. King tried to tell us. Decades ago he understood that “we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny.” That’s what he said. “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
If humanity is a global body, every soul is a cell in that body. And we are being challenged as never before to keep the global body healthy by keeping ourselves healthy in mind, body and spirit. As all the traditions affirm, the deepest self care is at once caring for the human family.
We see this so clearly with essential workers. Look who turns out to be essential! Teachers—your teachers!—healthcare workers of course, the people stocking grocery shelves, the cashiers, the truck drivers, food providers, those who are caring for your grandparents, those who clean the places where we work and shop and carry out our daily lives. We are all here because they, at great and profound risk, are still providing their essential service.
What will your essential service be?
What really matters to you? The fact that you’re alive means you’ve been given a reprieve to think deeply about that question. How will you use what matters in service to yourself, your community, and the world?
For me it has always been talking and sharing stories. For you—well, that’s for you to discover.
My hope is that you will harness your education, your creativity, your valor, your voice, your vote—reflecting on all that you’ve witnessed and hungered for, all that you know to be true—and use it to create more equity, more justice, and more joy in the world.
To be the class that COMMENCED a new way forward. The class of 2020. Bravo. Brava brava Brava."
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