To all of us who get downcast and discouraged, I encourage you to read this marvellous speech and recommit to the task we’ve taken on to “never lose sight of the fact that we are all in this together and that we are all deserving of a life that overflows with immense possibility, improbable beauty and relentless truth.”
Read the full speech or follow the selected high points below.
The Juilliard School’s 109th Commencement Speech ~ Joyce DiDonato
The world needs you – now, the world may not exactly realize it, but wow, does it need you. . . .
We need you to help us understand that which is bigger than ourselves, so that we can stop feeling so small, so isolated, so helpless that, in our fear, we stop contributing that which is unique to us: . . .
We need you to remind us what empathy is by taking us deep into the hearts of those who are, God forbid, different from us – so that we can recapture the hope of not only living in peace with each other, but thriving together in a vibrant way where each of us grows in wonder and joy.
We need you to make us feel an integral part of a shared existence through the communal, universal, forgiving language of music, of dance, of poetry and Art – so that we never lose sight of the fact that we are all in this together and that we are all deserving of a life that overflows with immense possibility, improbable beauty and relentless truth.