Now You Know

Christopher J. Nolan

I’ve seen previous speakers open with a joke about how visually appealing they are. I can’t do this, I’m too humble.

I was talking to my mom recently about this newfound humility and I said, “I used to think I knew it all.”

She replied, “Well, now you do.”

To quote Dr. Seuss, “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the person who'll decide where to go.”

Dr. Seuss originally wrote, “You are the guy who’ll decide where to go” but I changed it to “person” to adapt it to the times.

Harvard is the oldest university in America. It’s seen and adapted to more changes in the world than any of our other schools.

We’ve experienced a unique time and place in this great university’s history.

Coronavirus tested everyone’s ability to adapt to a rapidly changing environment. The physical distance, the toll it all took on our psyche. Each person uniquely experienced their own version of this unprecedented time, but we all experienced it together.

I like to think that humanity is better off now than it was before.

There’s a new feeling in the air and we’re still discovering what this means.

Is this the great generational shift that brings us into the new world?

What will this new world look like?

"In every disaster throughout American history, there always seems to be a man from Harvard in the middle of it" -Thomas Sowell (Class of 1958).

I didn’t change the pronoun there so I wouldn’t pull anyone else into all of this. You’re welcome.

People tend to look to the movers and shakers in the world when things go wrong and ask us, “Why?”

If the world were as simple as a few masterminds concocting the various trials and tribulations of human life, we could easily stop them. If we couldn’t, a few of us might even join them.

People look to those who are capable to solve the big problems in the world.

Is that a responsibility that we accept by proxy when we receive the acceptance letter and decide to join this group of distinguished people?

I’ll leave that for each of you to decide.

To quote Batman, “It's not who I am underneath, but what I do, that defines me.”

This Harvard education is now a part of all of our unique identities.

From here, it is up to each and every one of us to decide what we will do and therefore, how we will define our legacies.

Speaking of legacies, my great grandchildren used the time machine I invented in 2054 to thank me.

I kid, but the point remains.

If there’s one key takeaway from this Commencement Address, it would be this:

Adversity comes in all shapes and sizes.

Nearly eight years ago I was in a life threatening car accident.

After a box truck hit me head on on a mountain pass in Colorado, I was airlifted to the hospital to be treated in an ICU.

I broke 9 bones and collapsed a lung, I nearly died.

I had to learn how to walk again.

It took 5 or 6 years to not feel like someone was hammering an ice pick into the small of my back every waking moment of every single day.

I had to use most of my brain power to overcome the excruciating physical reality of my life.

I never really acknowledged how difficult that time was.

The gravity of what I was physically living through would have been too much to handle.

Somehow I believed that I could come through it and would be better off for it. Now I am.

I’ll always remember the people who reached in.

Their small acts of kindness and consideration were like a candle lighting the way through a dark time.

When I became physically able, I trained to be a Park Ranger. This was almost entirely outside of the scope of things which I already understood.

Something called me to it and through it, I gained the structure and discipline to once again be successful in my pursuits.

One instructor acknowledged my potential and encouraged me to develop it.

Just as all of our parents, friends, and loved ones helped us find the pathway here, this external act of encouragement made all the difference.

So I applied myself and here we are, graduating from Harvard.

This proves that we can work hard and achieve our goals.

There’s a Japanese philosophy called Kaizen, which seeks continuous improvement through small constructive action towards a bigger goal.

For years, we stayed up late doing Problem Sets, reading hundreds, thousands of pages of .pdf documents, nourishing our minds.

Each assignment, test, and quiz brought us closer to this degree.

Thinking back on how much went into it, I feel pretty good about myself. You should too.

Harvard isn’t easy.

That acceptance letter is not a magic ticket to a lifetime of one upping your friends, colleagues, and non-alumni family.

Once you’ve spent some time here earning a degree, it is then and only then that you’ve really earned  it.

In my lifetime, I’ve developed an understanding of individual adversity.

Through empathy and respect we can see eye to eye with so many different people.

We’ll enter the world with our newly developed minds, applying our potential in this human ecosystem on planet earth.

We’ll experience the joys of the ups and the pitfalls of the downs. 

We’ve had our fair share during this time, that’s what makes it special and unique.

From here, we’ll go our separate ways but we will always be together in our common experience of this incredible place, that will not change.

I worked really hard for this and so did you. 

No one can ever take that away from us.

I’m incredibly proud of this class and I’m excited to see what we will accomplish henceforth.

I almost named this speech “Henceforth” but one of my law professors said it sounded “Lawerly and Pretentious,” which is the name of my upcoming book.

Again I kid, but the point remains.

Now you know.

Congratulations to the class of 2023, and thank you.