With graduation just around the corner, *sob* Her Campus have rounded up our favourite graduation speeches. From Steve Jobs to J.K Rowling, we have selected the best of the bunch. Warning: these are emotional so make sure that you get out the tissues!
1) Steve Jobs:
This is probably one of Her Campus most favourite graduation speeches. It was delivered by the late Steve Jobs at the Stanford University graduation story. It centres around three stories about Jobs’ life and is a rollercoaster of emotion. It is fifteen minutes long, but definitely worth the listen and you will definitely feel inspired to follow your dreams at the end.
2) David Foster Wallace:
This is the speech the late author David Foster Wallace made at the closing ceremony at Kenyon college in 2005. In the speech, Foster Wallace speaks about the ‘truth’ of life after graduation and “the real value of a real education that has nothing to do with knowledge but awareness”. It is a little more sombre than we are used to but Her Campus thinks that it is still quite inspirational, helping to raise awareness of those mundane times in life where we do things without thinking the implications of them.
3) J.K Rowling:
This was the speech delivered by Exeter’s very own J.K Rowling at Harvard’s graduation ceremony in 2008. She even gives a shout-out to Exeter at the start of the speech when she reflects on her own graduation. Speaking on the benefits of failure and the importance of imagination, this is the perfect combination of happy, sad and inspiration!
4) Oprah Winfrey:
This is a speech made by Oprah to Harvard University last year. It is everything that you would expect from the famous chat show and hence requires little introduction!
5) Neil Gaiman:
This is very reassuring, especially to those of us out there who don’t know what they want to do following the end of university. He speaks about the importance of following your heart and how small steps, that might seem insubstantial help to shape you in profound ways.
Watching all of these have made Her Campus feel very excited about graduation, if not a little bit weepy, and we cannot wait to hear Floella’s speech!
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