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Readers share their message to the Class of 2023
"Find the good, valuable, and interesting in every job."
Graduating seniors have some big choices to make as they head to college or into the workforce. The end of a chapter in students’ lives can be confusing, sad, and also celebratory. Sometimes it helps to hear how others handled this monumental life accomplishment and their advice for the future.
We recently asked readers to share their best advice and memories from their own graduations, and how they felt at the time.
Where ever you may be headed, it helps to have some words of wisdom to help guide you. So, in honor of recognizing their accomplishments, we have compiled some of our favorites messages to graduates below.
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Whether you are completing high school, college, graduate school or beyond, we hope these messages relay the magnitude of your accomplishments and give you comfort as you cross the stage for your diploma.
Readers share their advice, memories, and feelings on graduation day:
Responses have been lightly edited for clarity.
“Find the good, valuable, and interesting in every job”
Message to graduates: “Ignore the noise. Ignore the loud and strident voices. Give different lines of employment a try and a chance. Make every assignment a personal challenge for excellence. Find the good, valuable, and interesting in every job — no matter how seemingly mundane, pointless, difficult, or boring. Always be prepared to move on.”
Best memory: “I [knew] that part of the marathon composed mostly of reading was over, and that the lab was beginning, and that was good and timely.”
-Frank I., Hobart College (Class of 1978); Hofstra University School of Law (Class of 1982)
“I am doing something now I had no idea existed at the time”
Message to graduates: “Be open, be flexible. What you think is going to happen in your life now, may turn out to be something completely different in the future – and that is not a bad thing. I went to school thinking I was going to do A, but life happens and I am doing something now I had no idea existed at the time, let alone me doing it and loving it. I fell into my passion at work.”
Best memory: “It poured in the morning, but by the afternoon, the sun came out and all our warped mortar boards and wet gowns were drying out. Then to get the actual paper, the reception was a cheese and deli platter in the basement of a building and there were about 35 of us.”
-Amanda, Boston University (Class of 1985)
“Now you have to earn it”
Message to graduates: “College was to learn it, now you have to earn it. Life owes you nothing.”
-Willy, Boston State College
“Work hard”
Message to graduates: “Work hard, be honest and kind, and admit your mistakes immediately.”
Best memory: “How little I knew and how much more I needed to learn. “
-Ginny M., Marymount College (Class of 1978)
“Congrats, now go get a job”
Message to graduates: “Congrats, now go get a job.”
Best memory: “I was so happy the nightmare was finally over. “
-JD R., University of Maryland (Class of 1991)
“Don’t forget to live life”
Message to graduates: “Don’t forget to live life while you build your career, you only get one lifetime. Plan for your retirement from the first day of your job and reassess your plan every 10 years. Retirement always [costs] more than you think.”
-Linda G.
“You are not the center of your own universe”
Message to graduates: “You are not the center of your own universe.”
-Dixie, Mansfield High School (Class of 1980)
“You must keep learning just to keep up”
Message to graduates: “[F]ind an inexpensive home…WFH, or mostly if possible…The real #1 is set a budget and stick to it.”
Best memory: “After I graduated I thought that was the last lime I had to learn anything, well that did not pan out. You must keep learning just to keep up. Embrace it.”
-Mike H. University of Massachusetts Amherst business school (Class of 1983)
“Build your resume”
Message to graduates: “Build your resume in customer service and support.”
Best memory: “Receiving my graduate degree and putting it to work in the service of others.”
Fran L., Simmons University (Class of 1985)
Some responses have been edited for length and clarity.
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