Commencement speech 2024 (full text): “I Succeeded” by Glen Guyton

Commencement address (as prepared for delivery) by Glen Guyton, excecutive director of Mennonite Church USA — at the 126th Goshen College Commencement on Sunday, April 28, 2024.

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Greetings, soon-to-be graduates. Thank you for showing up to my 15 minutes of fame. I really needed this.

Congratulations on being great. Graduation is a significant milestone, and I want you to appreciate this moment in time.

So take a deep breath and say, “This is great!”

 Now, I want you to raise your right hand, if you can, high to the sky as far as you can, if you can’t do that motion physically, lift up your heart, lift your mind, or whatever can and say, I succeeded.

Yes, today you are a success and I want you to enjoy this point in your life. Graduating from college is not an easy feat and you had done it.

You are surrounded today by friends, family, spouses, loved ones, haters, teachers, and those dudes whose names you will not remember in 20 years.

But today they are all here, we are all here because you are a success. Now let me warn you not to forget that.

You see what will happen as soon as this ceremony is over, Aunt Meghan or Uncle Jim Bob are going to start asking you questions about the future. They are going to ask you what your plans are. They are going to start giving you unsolicited advice about you should do next, what you should accomplish, where you should work, who you should marry.

Look I get it. I am successful. I am driven, but the drive for more doesn’t allow us to appreciate the happiness and success that we have, in the here and now.

Say, “I succeeded!”

The constant pursuit of happiness, the drive to change the world, the relentlessness of the American dream, doing it for the gram, keeping up with the Joneses, won’t lead you to a life of peace and joy. It will only lead to a desire for MORE. And more ain’t always better, it’s just more.

A few years ago I wrote a book called “The IDEAL Me.” It’s on Amazon if you want to check it out, but I would not write that book today. At the very least I would change that title.

You see I have figured out that the endless pursuit of happiness and trying to achieve our IDEAL dream just makes us stressed and prevents us from enjoying the here and the now.

At 20+ all I could think about was, what is next. Now at 50+ after reaching many of my dreams.

I say, man I should have enjoyed that journey just a tiny bit more. I should have stopped and smelled the maple leaves. I should appreciated all the great I was doing before chasing after the next great thing.

Somebody say, “Today is a good day.”

So, well-meaning relatives, y’all need to chill out. Let these young people enjoy today before you start planning their future. Hopefully you all get a break on tuition payments now, so enjoy that.

I want to share a secret with you today, graduates. I’m sharing this because I want you to have a life of peace and one that leads to healthy habits. I don’t want you to pursue happiness. I want you to BE happy. I don’t want you to chase your dreams. I want you to dream.

Here is the secret to developing those healthy habits:

LOOK BACK.

You can’t see how much you have grown if you don’t look back at where you have come from. The joy in living this life is not about wishing and agonizing over what you have yet to do.

The joy in life comes from appreciating the growth and determination that makes you who you are today. Whatever you are and whoever you are today took a lot of work. And if you keep on working, tomorrow you will be even further along than you were yesterday.

Don’t chase the IDEAL.

Shoulda, Coulda Wounda, is just gonna give you high blood pressure. Reflecting on your growth is, well, amazing.

Somebody say: Today is a Good Day. I succeeded.

You have succeed soon to be graduates. Look around at all the people who have come to celebrate you. But don’t even worry about them, I want you to celebrate yourself.

Somebody say, “Worry about your self.”

Let me introduce you to a friend of mine. This is KoCo. I have had KoCo for a couple of years now. I love KoCo. Now my IDEAL dream is to sound like B.B. King or Prince. But I am not even remotely close to that level of skill after picking up a guitar over a decade ago.

But guess what?

I am a whole lot better at this guitar than I was three years ago. There was I time when I could not play a single clean note, a chord, or song.

So today I have two choices. I can keep wishing for what I am not or I can celebrate where I came from and where I am today. My reflection of my guitar skills could be:

Glen you suck because so many people are better guitar players than you. You are 54 years old; you started too late. Every youth pastor in the world is better at guitaring than you. You should quit. You can’t do this.

Or I can say, Glen you rock. You have come a long way baby. Haters gonna hate, but you have grown, and you are one thousand times better than you were. Keep working at it. Keep enjoying it. Keep getting better.

You see, the measurement of success is not about external comparisons, your degree, or the biased opinions of others.

Success is about growth. Success is about determination.

Success is about every day deciding that you have value,

Success is about appreciating that God took the time to create you and has entrusted you with this valuable thing that we call life.

Do you know how amazing it is just to be alive in 2024 Somebody say: I succeeded.

Yes, you have.

There is a song that was my motto, my theme song if you will. That I adopted because I thought this was the attitude; it took to really be successful.

All the shine of a thousand spotlights

All the stars we steal from the night sky

Will never be enough

Never be enough

Towers of gold are still too little

These hands could hold the world but itll Never be enough

Never be enough

You see I thought that I had to keep pushing, pushing, pushing for perfection. But why? Who am I doing all this for? Grabbing for far away stars and manipulated when spotlights, when my gifts and perseverance are already enough?

Why hide my current guitar playing and song singing when I have come so far.

Matthew chapter 5 tells me that I have a light that I need to let shine and not hide. And when I let my light shine, when I share my gifts, I glorify my God in heaven.

So you know what?

Today is gonna be the day that they’re gonna throw it back to you And by now, you should’ve somehow realized what you gotta do

I don’t believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now

 But I learned that TODAY, this day, is the most important DAY. Because I am enough. My growth is enough. I know more that I did yesterday.

And while there is a bright future ahead of me I thank God for who I am and for what I have today. You might not think I am a great guitar player, but I am one hundred times better than I was when I started, and that makes me a success, and it makes me happy. So happy.

So my final words to you as you leave this place: Sing your own song, embarrass yourself on the way to greatness, yes you can have dreams, you can have goals, you can have a career plan, and set important professional and life milestones. But do it for you.

And most of all enjoy every TODAY, every achievement; relish in your growth and not some far-off IDEAL,

Don’t pursue happiness, BE HAPPY because you have already succeeded.