It’s mid July and the advice given by commencement speakers has faded into dull background noise. I think it is a good time to highlight one last gem from the 2009 season.

Paul Hawken, the entrepreneur, environmentalist, journalist and author adressed the graduating class at the University of Portland in May. His lifelong focus has been sustainability and he has successfully changed the relationship of business to the environment in all of his endeavors.

In his speech he spoke of our relationship to the earth, particularly in these challenging economic times when it would be easy to declare environmental issues an expense item vs. a way to create jobs and generate revenue.

“There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring. The earth couldn’t afford to send recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.”

I encourage you to read the entire text of the speech. It frames the issue of preserving the earth in poetic term with realistic urgency. But his words do not just apply to our environmental challenges. They can be applied to any obstacle you encounter on the way to your dream. “The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hope only makes sense when it doesn’t make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it.”

How do you summarize the academic year we have just completed? What are the words that capture the essence of our shared experience? Let me offer two: adapt and change.

For those of you who have interviewed for full time positions or internships, what were the words you used to describe your strengths? How many of you spoke of your ability to adjust, to be flexible? In the past, these may have been responses you parroted after reading a self help title like ‘How to Ace the Interview’. This year your ability to adapt to change was ‘real world’.

Last night CNN broadcast President Obama’s commencement speech to the Class of 2009 at Arizona State University. He concluded his remarks with the following:

“I know starting your careers in troubled times is a challenge. But it is also a privilege. Because it’s moments like these that force us to try harder, to dig deeper, and to discover gifts we never knew we had — to find the greatness that lies within each of us. So don’t ever shy away from that endeavor. Don’t stop adding to your body of work. I can promise that you will be the better for that continued effort, as will this nation that we all love.”

A privilege? Has the President snapped? No. We are in a time of change. Our only constant is change and we need to adapt and adjust. Maybe our GPS is not working right now. But, sometimes when we’re lost we find those talents previously hidden. Do we fear rejection and failure? Of course, we’re human. Just don’t use fear of failure as an excuse to avoid engaging with the workplace. You will fail. You will be rejected and the next morning the sun will come up and you will adapt.

Don’t stand on the sidelines observing, waiting for the economy to get better. Don’t postpone this unique opportunity to participate in a great experiment. Step out, take your place. You have a place and only you know where to find it. Embrace this privilege, and discover your gifts.

In a competitive job market we spend a lot of time crafting our resume. We seek out opportunities to build our vitae through internships, community service and organizational involvement. But does this piece of paper or electronic document represent who we really are?

In the final blog on commencement speeches, I have saved the best for last. In 1999, Anna Quindlen the former New York Times columnist, author and current Newsweek contributor was scheduled to be the commencement speaker at Villanova University. But she withdrew after opponents of abortion threatened to disrupt the ceremony. A disappointed student asked for a copy of the address. It was posted on the Internet and later expanded into a book called ‘A Short Guide to a Happy Life’.

Here is a short excerpt from the transcript:

“You walk out of here this afternoon with only one thing that no one else has. There will be hundreds of people out there with your same degree; there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you will be the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk, or your life on a bus, or in a car, or at the computer. Not just the life of your minds, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank account, but your soul.

People don’t talk about the soul very much anymore. It’s so much easier to write a resume than to craft a spirit. But a resume is a cold comfort on a winter night, or when you’re sad, or broke, or lonely…

Here is my resume: I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my profession stand in the way of being a good parent. I no longer consider myself the center of the universe. I show up. I listen, I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows mean what they say. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my friends, and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today, because I would be a cardboard cutout. But I call them on the phone, and I meet them for lunch. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh.

I would be rotten, or at best mediocre at my job, if those other things were not true. You cannot be really first rate at your work if your work is all you are.”

This afternoon take a few minutes to look at your finely crafted resume. And then fill in between the lines. What is truly important to you? Who do you want to become?

Each semester I ask students to name someone they view as successful. Often the answer is close to home, mom or dad. Other names mentioned include Oprah, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

On June 12, 2005 Steve Jobs delivered the commencement address to the graduating class at Stanford University. The title of his address was ‘You’ve got to find what you love.’

In the past year, the first for this blog, I have often received angry comments whenever I talk about seeking out your dream. Many are skeptical, more so in this economy. Add to that those who believe you can only be successful with a degree in business or engineering. Yes, those disciplines do lead to success if that is the path you choose. But for the majority there is no clear ‘yellow brick road’ that leads to a ‘perfect puddle’. So, you need to start with your dream. And Steve Jobs conveys this far more eloquently using three themes: connecting the dots, love and loss and death. This one is for all the liberal arts grads.

“I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months…I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life… The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting….I decided to take a calligraphy class…I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science cannot quite capture, and I found it fascinating… None of this had even a hope for any practical application in my life…but ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts… Of course, it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later…. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

Take a few minutes to view the entire address on YouTube. You will see someone who is widely viewed as a success and you will come away with some ideas to help you begin to sketch that line connecting your dots.

As the academic year comes to an end you may be thinking about how unfair it is to be entering the workforce in an economic downturn.  This is a good time to talk to your roommate, the history major. You can take comfort in the lessons of previous generations who met serious challenges to their career aspirations.

On May 10, 2002 the journalist and author David Halberstam delivered the annual commencement address to the graduating class at the University of Southern California. This was the class who had experienced 9/11 in the fall of their senior year. The economy had shed a significant number of jobs. The stock market had lost value and world events had challenged national beliefs.

“And many of you, quite rightly I suspect, wonder – what does all this mean for me, where is my place in all of this? Has my own life – my career curve – been if not damaged at least greatly altered by events outside my control?

And the answer is that you will have as good and rich a life as you want and as you are willing to reach for. If anything, you may now have a chance for a richer life – one more connected to others around you – than if you had graduated in the high point of the booming curve of the ’90’s, where the concerns tended to be more material, and to be blunt, more selfish.”

He pointed out that those who survived the Great Depression, World War II and the Korean War came out of their experiences “finding sources of strength within themselves that they might otherwise never have discovered, and were thereby subsequently able to use their lives in many wondrous ways that otherwise might have come to a great surprise to them.”

Perhaps this would be a good time to think of the challenges we face as a chance to surprise ourselves and discover new ways to enjoy the richness of our lives.

If you are a senior you have a date circled on your calendar that marks the official end of your college years. It may be a day that you have anticipated since freshman orientation. Maybe you have been in denial and it was only when your mom called this morning that you realized it is only a matter of days before you bid farewell to alma mater.

It is inevitable. The day will come and you will be sitting in the bright sunshine listening to a commencement address. If you have been a regular reader of this blog, you know that the mantra is ‘learn from the stories of others’. On graduation day, pay attention and learn from the story of your commencement speaker.

In the next couple of weeks I will share some of my favorites from David Halberstam to Steve Jobs to the address Anna Quindlan never delivered to the graduating class of Villanova University.

The first I recommend was delivered to the Harvard Class of 2008. JK Rowling’s address was called ‘The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination’. Here is a sample.

“The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift….It is painfully won, and it has been worth more to me than any qualification I ever earned.”

It has been a year of challenge and setbacks. The economy threw us all a curve. The job search is more challenging that it was for the Class of 2008. But you have used your imagination to create new paths to your dreams. For this, you should be proud.