Ruth Westheimers
-Professor, media psychologist
My favorite animal is the turtle. The reason is that in order for the turtle to move, it has to stick its neck out. There are going to be times in your life when you’re going to have to stick your neck out. There will be challenges and instead of hiding in a shell, you have to go out and meet them.
~
I’m not going to take the easy way out. I won’t be satisfied with accepting what other people are willing to offer me.
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...To live life at its fullest you have to have the chutzpah to accept challenges. You don’t need nerves of steel. I’m not saying that sometimes you won’t be shaking in your boots after accepting some major challenge. But you can’t let that stop you. It really is better to fail than not to try, because if you never try, you’ll never succeed, and as bad as failure feels, success feels so much better.
... I wanted to be able to say the things I’ve said to you here today so that if at some time down the road you reach a crossroads, if you’re at a point where you need to make a decision whether to say yes or no, hopefully at that moment you’ll think back to your commencement day. You’ll think of little Dr. Ruth and what she managed to accomplish, even rather late in life, and you’ll say to yourself, you know, I’m not going to be afraid of a little work, or a little challenge. I’m not going to take the easy way out. I won’t be satisfied with accepting what other people are willing to offer me.
Read the full commencement address »
Trinity College University
Hartford, CT
May 16, 2004
Sent in by: admin
Posted on: 06.28.2006