Cookies are required for login or registration. Please read and agree to our cookie policy to continue.

Newest Member: HeartbrokenQueen

New Beginnings :
Excerpt from Jeff Bezos's 2010 commencement address

This Topic is Archived
default

 phmh (original poster member #34146) posted at 12:46 AM on Tuesday, April 9th, 2013

I'm sure these will start coming out of the woodwork, given the time of year, but this one really spoke to me the other day (I just excerpted part of it) and it seemed so appropriate to NB. In fact, I suspect most commencement addresses also apply, as there are many similarities between the NB a college grad has and the NB we get to make for ourselves after D!

http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S27/52/51O99/

Tomorrow, in a very real sense, your life -- the life you author from scratch on your own -- begins.

How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make?

Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions?

Will you follow dogma, or will you be original?

Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure?

Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?

Will you bluff it out when you're wrong, or will you apologize?

Will you guard your heart against rejection, or will you act when you fall in love?

Will you play it safe, or will you be a little bit swashbuckling?

When it's tough, will you give up, or will you be relentless?

Will you be a cynic, or will you be a builder?

Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?

I will hazard a prediction. When you are 80 years old, and in a quiet moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made. In the end, we are our choices. Build yourself a great story.

Me: BW, divorced, now fabulous and happy!

Married: 11 years, no kids

Character is destiny

posts: 4993   ·   registered: Dec. 8th, 2011
id 6290883
default

permanentpain ( member #38312) posted at 12:48 AM on Tuesday, April 9th, 2013

I love it!! Tough questions, but the answers are worthwhile.

Me: 32 y/o, student and mom of two of the best kids in the world
Him: 33 y/o scumbag
Divorcing
Feels good to start laughing and feeling better again...

posts: 270   ·   registered: Jan. 30th, 2013   ·   location: Island
id 6290884
default

SoHappyNow ( member #8923) posted at 2:34 AM on Tuesday, April 9th, 2013

I do my damnedest to always make the second choice......

In the depths of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer..Albert Camus--------73 now. Dday #1 was 11/11/05 ***Used to be hit-by-a-train*** Widowed, then VERY happily remarried 2/14/14

posts: 2673   ·   registered: Nov. 23rd, 2005   ·   location: USA
id 6291004
This Topic is Archived
Cookies on SurvivingInfidelity.com®

SurvivingInfidelity.com® uses cookies to enhance your visit to our website. This is a requirement for participants to login, post and use other features. Visitors may opt out, but the website will be less functional for you.

v.1.001.20250404a 2002-2025 SurvivingInfidelity.com® All Rights Reserved. • Privacy Policy