In 2011, I was awarded an honorary Doctor of Sciences degree from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. I am proud of that distinction, and it afforded me an opportunity to give a commencement speech. In this month of graduations, I am sharing that slightly edited speech with you as my “advice” to graduates:
I am honored and humbled to receive this recognition and thank all my colleagues here at Waterloo in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies for supporting me not only for this recognition but in many ways over the years. This Department is without a doubt the leading recreation and leisure studies program in North America.
I have attended dozens of convocation and graduation ceremonies during my career in higher education. I love these celebrations. Everyone is happy and excited. It is a marker in time that is important to you whether graduating or supporting graduates. Congratulations to all of you.
A few weeks ago I received an email from my alma mater, Iowa State University, reminding me that it had been 40 years since my baccalaureate graduation. I remember little about that ceremony, but I do remember the feelings of anticipation as I moved into the next chapter of my life. Although my mother had completed her bachelor’s degree only four years earlier, getting the degree was a big deal for my family that I only appreciated many years later. I remember the excitement and feelings of the day for graduates as well as their supporters regarding the new adventures lying ahead. However, I do have five minutes to emphasize what I hope all of you already know about today and the coming years.
As you go forward from this day, I hope you recognize daily the importance of “doing balance.” What do I mean? I suggest that three key elements will define your life—maybe more than three but for today I will talk about balance as a combination of work, family, and leisure. Having a good life is the outcome, and it happens because we “do” balance throughout our lives.
First, a few words about work. You have spent your university days learning and preparing for a work career. You have had the privilege of choosing a career that will become, if it is not already, your calling. Most graduation speakers challenge graduates to go out into the world and make a difference. I hope each of you does that. You have done well in college and now it is time for you to do good in life. Your career, however, is only one element of your future life that must be nurtured.
The second element in “doing balance” is family. The writer Jane Howard stated: “Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one. We all need others in our life.” Many people will come in and out of your life in the future. Some of them are here today and will remain. Others will drift away. New friends will enter and you will create new families and networks. Don’t take any of these significant people for granted. Doing balance including family, or whatever you call it, means that you will “laugh often, and love much.”
The third dimension of doing balance is appreciating the importance of leisure in your life. Balance includes using the freedom to do enjoyable things. Work and family can make us happy, but leisure completes a good life. The British philosopher Bertrand Russell noted, “The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good, you will be happy – I mean that if you are happy, you will be good.”
I am biased because leisure is the area that I have studied throughout my career, especially within the context of gender and diversity. Promoting leisure has been my passion BOTH professionally and personally. For balance, for the good life, leisure is a necessity and not just an amenity.
Leisure is sometimes misunderstood, but its value in doing balance cannot be discounted. I challenge you to do leisure as a major element of your life well lived. You know the cliché, “all work and no play make Jack or Jill a dull person.” When most people come to the end of their lives, they do not say they wished they had “worked more or worked harder.” They focus on the activities outside of work that gave great joy, often with others. Many of the really significant events in our lives are done in a leisure context.
Leisure is much more than selfish pleasure. With the freedom to do leisure also comes responsibility to do no harm to ourselves or others. Doing leisure today also must be considered with thoughts about social and environmental justice. But many opportunities exist in finding enjoyable and meaningful activities– having a hobby you feel passionate about, volunteering for a compelling cause, reading good books, listening to music, travelling, connecting with friends. Leisure can be found daily in moments of enjoyment or “minute vacations”—watching a beautiful sunset, enjoying coffee at a neighborhood café, sharing humor, playing with pets. Be mindful of the things in life that make you smile each day. Leisure has many forms and the direct beneficiary is you.
If you have flown on an airplane, you may have heard a flight attendant talk about the oxygen masks and say, “If you are sitting next to a child, put on your own mask first before assisting the child.” The message is that each of us must take care of ourselves first if we are to help others. Each of us must recognize the importance of doing balance—work, family, and leisure—a good life, a life well lived.
Thank you, congratulations, and best wishes. Enjoy your family and friends with leisurely celebrations today.
