You Are Not Special Commencement Speech from Wellesley High School

"You are not special" speech at 2012 Wellesley High School Graduation

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[Ryan Keating]

Us too. You are not special :)

[Bigred17756]

The purpose of his speech was to highlight the fact that, thinking you're the best does not mean you're the best. That title must be earned, and the only way to do that is through effort and achievement, not hollow titles and meaningless accolades.

[Angrylittlelouie]

That last part got me when he said something about ''the great and curious truth of the human experience'' and ''that the sweetest joys in life come only with the recognition that you are not special.''

Very Very True. Gosh i would hate to look at myself in Highschool. What a DICK!!!!

[Fiona Kelleghan]

A prayer for humility, but also for wide reading.

[Heidi Winslow]

I 100% agree to this speech. To add to the problem, after we build false confidence in our kids, we run around them until they graduate from high school with soccer, dance, tutors, fake service projects, ...all the more building up their pedestal that THEY are more important than anything else you may need to do that day. Will a boss or college professor do that for them? Why do we?

[Tim Aurand]

As a university professor I see the Me, Me, Me attitude nearly everyday. As a father of three teenagers I see it everyday. I once asked my son to mow the lawn and he told me, "I'm going to college to be a CPA...I don't do labor." In contrast, when I was in 6th grade a farmer asked me if I'd help him make hay. My father quickly answered the farmer by telling me, "At your age, all you got's a back..Use it." Our young today are simply "Over entitled and under appreciative".

[Elizabeth Santos]

I was reading Time magazine about the me, me, me generation and they mentioned this video. Very well done.

[Elizabeth Santos]

That was really a very truthful, and amazing speech. Climb to the top of the mountain to see the world, not so the world see's you.

[Clint McClure]

Yeah you gotta earn your right to be treated special

[Mark Casey]

We are getting soft, have been for some time. He is just saying that none of the graduates has earned anything YET. Some will, some won't. We all know high school "failures" that did quite well and wonderkids that flopped. I call this the "Tree Fort Syndrome". Baby Boomers and Gen Xers found wood, borrowed tools, figured out how to hoist materials into trees and had fun - learning all the way. Millenials have the pre-fab tree forts from Home Depot. Every house has one, ever see a kid?

[RoseEyed]

This is like my literature classes all over again! The only way to really know what he's saying is to ask the man himself. But like any good piece of literature or speech, the way its interpreted will vary from person to person. So I wouldn't assume that either of you are necessarily wrong or not getting the full picture. And I'm sure a lot of viewers got "deeper meanings" from it too. Have some faith! :)

[BOI276]

Yeah, I probably should have said '..acts as an adjective' rather than '..is an adjective'. ( But probably never as an adverb).