This is the season of graduations, which mark important accomplishments for schools, students and families.
I was honored to be asked to be the speaker at one of Georgia Tech’s three graduation ceremonies this year. Facing a group of smart and highly accomplished students presents a big challenge: what message can a newspaper editor offer such a group?
It’s always best, I suppose, to share experiences we know and advice we trust. This is a shortened version of my speech:
As a newspaper editor, I work at telling stories for a living.
Nothing is more important to a culture, a family, a company and even a university than the stories people tell about it. Though they may be a Tweet or a comment on Facebook or a video on our phone, we are defined by the stores we tell, whether funny, sad, inspiring or emotional. And in an age of massive amounts of information, the things we tell our stories about have never been a stronger signal of what’s important to us, what shapes us and what we value.
And so, I urge you to tend to your own, vital story — that story that will become the tale of your life. There is no story that you are more obliged to author with care.
I’d like to offer a little guidance in writing that story.
First, let me acknowledge that your story appears to be off to a good start.
Take a look around. The characters you’ve spent these last four or so years with contributed vital parts to your story. And as any writer knows, good characters — those with personalities you love and emotions with which you connect – are hard to find.
Of course, the next chapter likely requires you to leave these characters behind, to recognize their part in your story, however vital and fulfilling, is mostly over. That’s not easy.
But don’t worry; other characters will arrive, whether you’re ready for them or not. As your story develops, the characters get harder to understand and often don’t fit as neatly into the narrative.
But welcome them. Characters are the heart of a great story, and, of course, you ought to commit to your story being great. All worthwhile stories have good guys and bad guys. And so these characters may come along as bosses or rivals or competitors or partners. Some will become friends — and perhaps a lifelong partner, the most treasured character in any personal story.
Each character shapes the story and changes its plot.
And so tend carefully to the qualities of the characters you invite into your story. It’s your story, after all, and you don’t want them running it off somewhere it doesn’t belong. Because there are stories that get you in the newspaper with an unflattering picture. I recommend that you leave such stories to someone else.
Never forget that the most important character in your story is you. That doesn’t mean you’ll be at the center of every scene. But we all have a favorite character, and we know the things we love and admire about that character. I urge you to be that kind of character.
As you write your story, you don’t have to invent character traits; some have held up through all the ages.
Here’s one: commitment. We all love a character with commitment. That character with unflagging loyalty to a goal or ambition. Whether they have a desert to cross, an ocean to sail, a mountain to climb or a prison to escape, we like characters who are devoted to their cause, and unswerving in their actions. So be that way. Know what you want. Make it something huge and important – and far off in the distance. Craft a life story that points toward that goal each and every day. Never lose sight of it.
And remember that great characters are guided by integrity.
For in all great stories, it’s not just what our hero does, it is how he or she does it.
The best and enduring characters always act with integrity. From the Bible to “Huckleberry Finn,” integrity remains the most crucial yet scarcest of qualities. So when in doubt, when your plot lines thicken and get confusing, when the characters in your story seem to have drifted from their moorings, when the outcome of your story suddenly seems threatened, make sure you’re the character whose actions are guided by integrity. That choice, as proven in virtually every story through the ages, never comes out badly.
