Brookstone School Baccalaureate address May 22, 2011
I offer these to you as a father – advice I’d want my daughter to hear if I couldn’t be here to give it. Fortunately, I am here and so is she. So I give this advice to Hannah but also to you – many of you I love like my own sons and daughters…

1. The book on you is already being written.
If I was from Chicago and came down here, I could find out a lot about you. I could talk to your teachers, your coaches, your friends and I could look at your facebook page and figure out what kind of person you are. Are you trustworthy? Are you willing to work hard? Are your priorities in the right place? Will you put others ahead of yourself?

So don’t kid yourselves – people that matter are already forming their opinions of you. What you do does matter. All of this will start to matter even more as you get into college and start thinking about the job market.

Frame your story for where you want to be in five years. Take control of your story and how you want it to look. Don’t let others. Know your road map. Know where you are going. Know what you stand for.

2. Path principle
So how do you frame your story? It is the Path Principle. The Path Principle is simply this – Direction, not intention, determines your destination. The direction you are heading, not your intentions, will determine where you end up. It isn’t what you dream for or hope for or even pray for – it is the path you choose that will determine your destination. You can dream, hope, plan and pray for your trip to the beach but if you get on the highway and go north, you won’t get to the beach.

So as you enter college, know where you’re going. Know your objective. Write down where you want to be in five years. Develop your business plan and sharpen your focus on that goal. If you are intently focused on where you want to be at the end of college it will help you stay out of a whole lot of trouble along the way. And you will be tempted. Many things will come along to try to pull you off your path. It is sort of like trying to get into shape or training to run in a marathon. If you know what your path is and what you goals are, you can say “no” to a lot of temptations.

3. 4 years is going to go by in the blink of an eye.
You’ve waited and waited for college to arrive so you can go away and “be free”. As long as you’ve waited, you’re going to be amazed at how quickly it will pass. Five years from now many of you will be working in full-time jobs and a few of you will be married. College will be over and you will think “Wait…what just happened?”

4. Resist the temptation to take short-cuts
There is no human invention quite as beneficial as hard work. Don’t make compromises in your integrity to advance. Do the hard work to get ahead. The desire to work hard, the ability to work hard and willingness to do hard things are all incredibly valuable assets. Hard work will take you a lot farther in life than a 4.0 GPA.

5. Your competition is about to ramp up significantly
For some of you the work at Brookstone has been a fairly low bar to get over…you’re just that smart. College will not be a low bar. I see where some of you are going – Davidson, North Carolina, Tulane, the Georgia honors program, Furman, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest – but for all of you regardless of the school you’re attending, you are jumping into the pool with the best of the best, some of the very brightest kids in our nation and in the world. Your competition this fall will be awake, alert and razor focused. They are also very driven and very hungry. Your incoming competition won’t view college as a country club or a frat party. They view it as a catapult to launch them into high paying, successful careers. They are going to hit the ground running. Will you?

6. You’ll never quit learning
Learning doesn’t end four years from now when you graduate from college. Learning is a lifelong process. 25 years after graduating from college, I am learning every single day. I am reading, studying and talking to others to gain knowledge and insights. You’ll never quit learning. Embrace it. Welcome it. College is the training ground to equip you for a lifetime of learning.


If you will allow me, I’d like to share three truths with you…

1. You are a Masterpiece
First of all, I want to tell you that you are a Masterpiece…a work of art. I know almost each and every one of you. As much as some of you have tried to blend into the crowd and look and be like your peers, each one of you is different. God has blessed each of you with unique talents and abilities. Your parents have nurtured those gifts along. You have worked hard in many cases to develop and build on your talents. When I see where many of you are going to college, as I’ve watched you excel in athletics, when I marveled at your talents in The Music Man, when I heard all of your accomplishments at Senior awards the other day – it is just crystal clear to me….this is a class of superstars, this is a class full of priceless works of art.

I personally believe God dreamed each one of you up like a painting. He started with a blank canvas and crafted you out of nothingness. I also personally believe that a God that would craft each of you like a work of art…cares. He isn’t distant, far off and removed. He is present and he cares. He dreams great dreams for you. To the creator, you truly are a priceless work of art.

And so…you matter. You are very important. Protect yourself. Don’t let the world tear you down and convince you that you don’t matter. You do.

2. You have been blessed
You are incredibly blessed. You are healthy, smart and talented. You were born in America. You don’t lack for food, clean water, medical care or clothing. Right there, you have a leg up on about 98% of the world’s population.

Brookstone….I know you can’t wait to get out of here but let me tell you, you have been incredibly blessed by this place. You’ll go to college with kids from Montgomery Academy, Savannah Country Day, Stratford Academy, Athens Academy, Pace Academy, etc. and none of them hold a candle to Brookstone. I think we take a lot for granted. The new Upper School, the Quadrangle, the ball fields and athletic facilities, the creek, the 40 acres of woods surrounding the school, the Chapel, the Sam Pate outdoor classroom – this is a special, special place. In today’s dollars, more than $75 million has been invested to make Brookstone the physical beauty it is.

When I went to Brookstone 30+ years ago, almost none of this was here. Bradley Park Drive was mostly woods. The only other structure on this road was the bowling alley. There was no Chick-Fil-a, Starbucks, Target or Panera Bread just right down the road from here for us to enjoy. There was no soccer field, no Turner Center, no softball field, no Quadrangle, there were no mini-buses, technology, smart boards or snack bar and y’all remember what the old Upper School looked like.

And your teachers…you’ve had some incredible teachers. You’ve had teachers that have poured their lives into you. Almost every one of you have had a transformational teacher – a teacher who was there working with you when the light bulb came on and you “got it”. It may have been Mrs. Pate or Dr. Byrd or Dr. East or Mrs. Jarrell or Mrs. Flournoy but it also may have been Mrs. Krause in 4-K or Mrs. Kennedy in 3rd grade or Mrs. Yancey in Middle School. But somewhere along the way each one of you’ve have had a teacher that has blessed you.

Your parents – if you’ve been here all 12+ years – they’ve invested more than $125,000 to get you a Brookstone education. $125,000 is a lot of money. There are thousands of families in Columbus where $125,000 given to them would absolutely change their lives. That much money could help a family buy a home or pay their home off. It could send a kid to college that otherwise would have no chance to go. It’s a lot of money and it has been poured into you.

And stuff – you all have ipods, ipads, iphones, itouches. You have nice clothes and drive really nice cars. You live in nice homes and take nice vacations.

You should not be ashamed of this but you should realize you are incredibly blessed.

For those of you that attended the FCA this spring where Coach McGee from Carver spoke to us you will remember that he said 90% of the kids at Carver are on the food program – they eat breakfast and lunch at the school and for most of them, lunch is their last meal of the day. He has football players who eat lunch, finish school, lift weights and practice and go home to no dinner. Their families cannot afford to feed them. That isn’t some far off, distant third world country – that is right here in Columbus, Georgia.

There are many things that you and I take for granted.

1 billion people on this planet live on less than $1 a day. 2 billion live on less than $2 a day. For the cost of an order of fries down Bradley Park Drive at Chick-Fil-a or a Starbucks coffee…you could feed a person for a day.

So I want you to see that you are incredibly blessed. I want you to acknowledge that teacher that made an impact on your life. Go find them tonight at Graduation and look them in the eye and just thank them. Find that coach that worked hard teaching you how to succeed at your position and was there to listen to you when you needed to talk. Find them and thank them.

Thank your parents or in some cases, grandparents. They have made huge sacrifices to get you here and are about to embark on another enormous sacrifice to send you to college.

Many have poured much sacrifice into helping you succeed. Realize you are blessed. Don’t take any of this for granted.

So you have all of this blessing – what are you going to do with it? The Bible teaches that “To whom much is given, much will be required.” There are 2 billion people on this earth living on $2 a day. Will you hoard this blessing you’ve been given and keep it to only advance yourself –- or -- will you take this blessing and leverage it to improve the lives of others?

Said another way – as a father to his children – I want you to wake up to the “bigger picture” … that life isn’t all about what we can take from it but rather what we can give back to others.

So my charge to you today is a question …
What are you going to do with this blessing?

God has dreamed you up with unique talents and abilities. The community has sacrificed to build you and equip this great school. Teachers and coaches have poured their talent and hearts into you. Your parents have made great sacrifices to give you the Brookstone education. You’re about to go off to world class universities. You are in the top 1-2% of all people on this planet. You’ve been equipped. What now? What are you doing to do with this blessing?

I will leave you with this last truth – and that is -- that optimism is a great asset to possess. I want you to be optimistic.
I want you to be…

So strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

To see the glass as being ½ full and never ½ empty.

Be the one that sees the opportunity rather than the one that points out the problem.

Think only of the best.
Work only for the best.
Expect only the best.

Be just as enthusiastic about the success of others and you are about your own success.

Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

Spend so much time reaching to improve that you have no time to criticize others.

Be too large for worry.
Be too noble for anger.
Be too strong for fear.

This is my favorite -- The pessimist sees things as they are and asks “why?” while…

The optimist dreams things that never were and asks “why not?”

We want you to be the kind of people that dream things that never were and asks “why not?”

You’ve been equipped.
You’ve been blessed.
You’re ready.
Now go and seize the day.

Thank you very much for giving me this one last chance to speak to each of you.