Commencement Speech

The job market is worse than ever and you've probably heard other existentialist threats about your prospects. From the arts students out of work, to the science students judged on where they went rather than on what they can do. You're entering a market where it is basically impossible to have any quality of life without a degree according to the politicians. But here's the thing: the money isn't always the greatest thing about the work.

Here's to the science students who hate working in the lab, like my friend who had an MSc in Biology and left the lab to become a mechanic. A person who traded stress for a job that pays massively less money - but comes with happiness and time, friends everywhere and quality days with the family.

Here's to the arts grads who left the world of academia, the broken education world and the horrors of government funding in the world of cuts. I give the example of many people who have gone on to write their novel, to open their artsy tea shop, to start their podcast and to build up from ground zero. The difference is work. You can work on something you don't enjoy, but only for so long. But if you do something for yourself, you can work endlessly and it doesn't even feel like work at all.

So is it really about money? No. At your funeral, your bank account, you branch manager and your investments (if you have any) aren't going to turn up, and you sure as hell can't take it with you. When your parents pass away, your dollars and pounds aren't going to be at the other end of the phone offering support and sharing memories. When you get terminally ill, your bank's manager isn't going to come in to make you laugh.

Sometimes the best things we do don't pay very well but we are willing to trade in a material lifestyle for one that perhaps contains something a bit more: purpose, connection and meaning. Go down to the pub on a Friday night with your friends for a laugh, switch your phone off on Sunday morning to let yourself sleep an hour or so more and most importantly, build your neighbourhood community. If you do well you will get well in return. Be kind when people don't expect you to be. Choose your child or your sibling over another hour at work.

If you look at the history of the world, you're not here for a very long time at all - so how would you like to be remembered? As the person who worked to death for a big bank account or the person whom when others remember them a decade after they're gone - still makes them smile?