Passage 1

Dear graduates, on this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, and as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called "real life", I would like to talk to you about the benefits of failure. What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure. The fact that you are graduating from this prestigious university suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure. After all, you have already flown high academically.
   So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Failure taught you things about yourself that you could not have learned other way. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by failure or adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift. I hope that you remember those words of ancient wisdom: As is a talc, so is life: what matters is not how long it is, but how good it is.