"arts degrees are awesome... they help you find meaning where there is none."

often i wake up, and when i'm having a particularly difficult time getting out of bed, i listen to a convocation speech. or an occasional address. or something involving someone receiving an honorary degree. it always makes me smile, cry, and get my ass up out of bed. 
(this may sound corny, or mostly just ridiculous that i need a motivational speaker to get out of bed, but at least i'm HONEST. i literally watched this twice before i got out of bed monday. plus, it made me feel better about my 18 'side projects' i have on the go. thanks tim!)
perhaps one of my most favourite - one i've been watching and listening to since it was posted - is this one, given my tim munchin at the university of western australia. a brilliant man, and while people may see him as being negative and dream-bashing (which i guess is sort of true, since he literally does say 'don't have a dream' in his address), but he's incredibly intelligent, strongly astute, and makes points that we all need to hear time and time again. you may take some of this in stride - alongside the things you feel and 'dream' and have always thought. or you may take away from this how strongly we all need to re-evaluate life, and what we've been told, and how we need to learn to live our own lives. 


a few of my favourite moments.
"...the software guy’s not going to get it, is he? Cos he didn’t do an arts degree, did he? He should have. Arts degrees are awesome. And they help you find meaning where there is none. And let me assure you, there is none. Don’t go looking for it. Searching for meaning is like searching for a rhyme scheme in a cookbook: you won’t find it and you’ll bugger up your soufflé.
"I never really had one of these big dreams. And so I advocate passionate dedication to the pursuit of short-term goals. Be micro-ambitious. Put your head down and work with pride on whatever is in front of you… you never know where you might end up. Just be aware that the next worthy pursuit will probably appear in your periphery. Which is why you should be careful of long-term dreams. If you focus too far in front of you, you won’t see the shiny thing out the corner of your eye."
"Remember, It’s All Luck. Understanding that you can’t truly take credit for your successes, nor truly blame others for their failures will humble you and make you more compassionate. Empathy is intuitive, but is also something you can work on, intellectually."
"By the way, while I have science and arts grads in front of me: please don’t make the mistake of thinking the arts and sciences are at odds with one another. That is a recent, stupid, and damaging idea. You don’t have to be unscientific to make beautiful art, to write beautiful things. If you need proof: Twain, Adams, Vonnegut, McEwen, Sagan, Shakespeare, Dickens. For a start. You don’t need to be superstitious to be a poet. You don’t need to hate GM technology to care about the beauty of the planet. You don’t have to claim a soul to promote compassion. Science is not a body of knowledge nor a system of belief; it is just a term which describes humankind’s incremental acquisition of understanding through observation. Science is awesome. The arts and sciences need to work together to improve how knowledge is communicated."
"We have tendency to define ourselves in opposition to stuff; as a comedian, I make a living out of it. But try to also express your passion for things you love. Be demonstrative and generous in your praise of those you admire. Send thank-you cards and give standing ovations. Be pro-stuff, not just anti-stuff."
"You will soon be dead. Life will sometimes seem long and tough and, god, it’s tiring. And you will sometimes be happy and sometimes sad. And then you’ll be old. And then you’ll be dead. There is only one sensible thing to do with this empty existence, and that is: fill it. Not fillet. Fill. It. And in my opinion (until I change it), life is best filled by learning as much as you can about as much as you can, taking pride in whatever you’re doing, having compassion, sharing ideas, running(!), being enthusiastic. And then there’s love, and travel, and wine, and sex, and art, and kids, and giving, and mountain climbing … but you know all that stuff already. It’s an incredibly exciting thing, this one, meaningless life of yours."
and perhaps my favourite:
"Be a teacher. Please? Please be a teacher. Teachers are the most admirable and important people in the world. You don’t have to do it forever, but if you’re in doubt about what to do, be an amazing teacher. Just for your twenties. Be a primary school teacher. Especially if you’re a bloke – we need male primary school teachers. Even if you’re not a Teacher, be a teacher. Share your ideas. Don’t take for granted your education. Rejoice in what you learn, and spray it."

you can read the entire address here. and i encourage you to watch. and rewatch. and think. and rethink. it will do you good. 

and watch again