As part of my ITA application I had to write an essay, actually a speech, given the prompt, "You have been selected to give the graduation speech at your High School... please craft a short speech in which you offer the graduating class the advice you think will best prepare them for the road ahead." I thought I would share my speech with you since, well, it's a piece of writing that I put a little more effort into than my typical blog post!

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Don't Wait

Congratulations, today's the day, the day you've been waiting for these past four years. I feel as though I spent a significant amount of time in the years leading up to my High School graduation waiting. Waiting for my 16th birthday and a driver's license, waiting for the bell to ring (and by bell, I mean light!), waiting for weekends, waiting to move out of my parents' house, waiting to fall in love. Maybe you've been waiting too, maybe it's not just a cliche and this really IS the day you've been waiting for.

Don't wait. Like any repetitive behavior, waiting develops into a habit, a mode of living. Break the habit of waiting. Make every day the day that you live your dreams. Decide every day that what you're doing is exactly the thing you want to be doing that day. Be as excited about your average day as you are about socially important days such as this, your graduation.

I'm only starting to break the habit of waiting and it beckons me enticingly back like a still warm imprint under a down comforter on an early winter morning. Last year I stopped waiting to train as hard as I could, stopped saying I would build my yearly training volume gradually, hiding behind expert advice. Instead I started saying, every day, today I will do the best I can to make myself a better skier than I was yesterday. And it's working. Don't wait.

This year I'm struggling to grasp something else I've been waiting for. I've been waiting to have an impact on my world. I've been waiting, telling myself that when I actually accomplish something I can go out and do good. I was waiting for my PhD so I would have wisdom and expertise to share with people and to enrich lives. I was working on self-improvement, waiting until I was great, waiting until I could be a worthy role model. Now, the PhD is an unforeseeable distance away and I'm further from perfection than ever. If I'm ever going to share myself with the world, there's no waiting. I'm going to do it now and hope that the people I meet along the way will forgive me my imperfections.

Don't wait. Choose to be the best version of you that you can imagine. Choose to pursue your dreams every day. Choose to share your talents with your friends, with your community, with the world. Make these choices now, today, and every day... Don't wait.