Drink Coffee, Have Fun, and Don’t Forget to Count Your Blessings
Drink Coffee, Have Fun, and Don’t Forget to Count Your Blessings
Below is the text of outgoing Graduate Student Council President Eric G. Weese’s address to the graduates of 2007.
One of the great things about MIT is that it draws students from around the world and from many different backgrounds. You wouldn’t be here today, though, if you did not have some things in common: a willingness to work hard, to persevere, to consume distinctly unhealthy quantities of caffeine. In short, you set a very high standard. And it is one I have been trying to reach.
But, the other day, as I was attempting to do thesis research, I was waylaid again by the Internet. (You might know that I am not graduating with you.) I did not completely waste my time, though, because I stumbled upon an interesting complaint, from someone with a $150,000 job. It reads as follows: “We never seem to have enough money to do anything fun.” It may well be that none of us will have all that we want, but it is also likely that we will all have much more than we need. So as you contemplate your possibly imminent ascent up the pay scale, please keep in mind that we are among the most fortunate ever. And we certainly ought to have enough to have some fun and to share it.
Congratulations on your hard earned degrees and best of luck with the future. Thank you.