Speeches & Statements
A Short Guide to a Happy Life
- Date: 08/27/2005
- Author: Dr. Luis M. Proenza (President, The University of Akron)
- Location: UA Commencement (a.m.), E. J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall
Broadcasting executive Ted Turner once compared life to that of a B-movie. "You don't want to leave in the middle of it," he said, "but you don't want to see it again."
(Turner, Ted, International Herald Tribune, Paris, March 2, 1990)Indeed, we play a major role in determining the screenplay of our life's story. To achieve happiness, we can be selective in what we do and, in some cases, what we choose to remember.
This message is fittingly outlined by award-winning columnist Anna Quindlen, and she tells us: "My work is human nature. Real life is really all I know."
(Quindlen, Anna, A Short Guide to a Happy Life, New York, 2000, p. 4)She confesses that as a novelist, she is not particularly qualified to give advice and that each time she delivers a commencement speech she feels somewhat like a fraud.
Still, in a recently published small book, she dispenses a tremendous amount of insight. So, let me share with you portions of A Short Guide to a Happy Life, in her own words:
"Don't ever confuse...your life and your work," she writes..."The second is only a part of the first."
(Quindlen, Ibid)"...a friend once wrote to Senator Paul Tsongas when the senator had decided not to run for reelection because (of health problems): ‘No(one) ever said on (their) deathbed (that they) wish (that they) had spent more time at the office.'"
(Quindlen, Ibid)"Don't ever forget the words on a postcard that my father sent me last year: ‘If you win the rat race, you're still a rat.'"
(Quindlen, Ibid)"Or what John Lennon wrote before he was gunned down: ‘Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.'"
(Quindlen, Ibid)Quindlen goes on to write: "...when you look at the faces of a class of graduating seniors, you realize that each student has only one thing that no one else has. When you leave college, there are thousands of people out there with the same degree you have; when you get a job, there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living."
"But you are the only person alive who has sole custody of your life..."
(Quindlen, Ibid)
(Quindlen, Ibid)"So I suppose the best piece of advice I could give anyone is pretty simple: get a life. A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger paycheck, the larger house...."
(Quindlen, Ibid)"Get a life, in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a breeze over the dunes, a life in which you stop and watch how a red-tailed hawk circles over a pond and a stand of pines."
(Quindlen, Ibid)"Get a life in which you pay attention to the baby as she scowls with concentration when she tries to pick up a Cheerio with her thumb and first finger."
(Quindlen, Ibid)"Turn off your cell phone. Turn off your regular phone, for that matter. Keep still. Be present."
(Quindlen, Ibid)"Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work. Each time I look at my (degree) I remember that I am still a student, still learning every day how to be human. Send an e-mail. Write a letter. Kiss your mom. Hug your dad."
(Quindlen, Ibid)"Get a life in which you are generous...look at a full moon hanging silver in the black sky on a cold night. And realize that life is glorious and that you have no business taking it for granted. Care so deeply about its goodness that you want to spread it around...give to charity. Work in a soup kitchen. Tutor a seventh-grader."
(Quindlen, Ibid)"All of us want to do well. But if we do not do ‘good,' too, then doing ‘well' will never be enough."
(Quindlen, Ibid)"It's ironic that we forget so often (just) how wonderful life really is. We have more time than ever before to remember it..."
(Quindlen, Ibid)"C'mon, let's be honest. We have an embarrassment of riches. Life is good."
"I don't mean in any cosmic way...I think of (life) in all its small component parts...Life is made up of moments, small pieces of flittering mica in a long stretch of gray cement."
(Quindlen, Ibid)
(Quindlen, Ibid)"It would be wonderful if they came to us unsummoned, but particularly in lives as busy as the ones most of us lead now, that won't happen. We have to teach ourselves how to make room for them, to love them, and to live, really live."
(Quindlen, Ibid)"I learned to live many years ago...I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned that this is not a dress rehearsal, and that today is the only guarantee you get."
(Quindlen, Ibid)"I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back, because I believed in it completely and utterly. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned, even though so many people may have thought I sounded like a Pollyanna."
(Quindlen, Ibid)"Learn to be happy. And think of life as a terminal illness, because, if you do, you will live it with joy and passion, as it ought to be lived."
(Quindlen, Ibid)"Anyone can learn all those things, out there in the world. You just need to get a life, a real life, a full life, a professional life, yes, but another life, too."
(Quindlen, Ibid)"School never ends. The classroom is everywhere. The exam comes at the very end..."
(Quindlen, Ibid)
* Title of book, A Short Guide to a Happy Life, by Anna Quindlen- Filed in:
Recently Added
- Relevance, Connectivity and Productivity: New Strategies for Success in Higher Education 11/08/2009
Remarks Abstract:
"Seismic rumbles of change" are transforming traditional paradigms for research and higher education-to say nothing about the relationships between academia, industry, government and the public. The sources of cataclysmic pressure are many, including competition among universities, shifting demographics and their accompanying shifts in priorities, resource constraints, public/government scrutiny of productivity and accountability in universities, the evolution of a global economy and the innovation ecosystem, and, most recently, the worldwide economic downturn. Like many industries, higher education is on the threshold of major, complex changes that must be directed to optimal outcomes. The University of Akron is innovating through a continuous process that seeks to enhance its relevance, connectivity and productivity.
Relevance: Institutions of higher education generally are place-based, and this means that the competitive and comparative advantages of universities are inextricably linked to the vitality and sustainability of their surrounding communities. Thus, universities must act to optimize their impact upon the regions in which they reside, and would be wise to extend their efforts collaboratively into like regions internationally. The complexities of the 21st Century knowledge and conceptual economy require that every academic discipline be collaboratively engaged with the relevant questions of the day in concert with other disciplines and partners on and off campus. In other words, relevance requires the integrated application of all disciplinary knowledge for the public good.
Connectivity: Connectivity is an extension of relevance and refers to engagement with others by universities in the myriad forms represented by partnerships and collaboration that are not limited by institutional, sector, geographic or disciplinary boundaries. In other words, connectivity means relevant engagement among some combinations of other academic institutions, government, business and industry. This becomes essential as governments become a smaller and smaller financial partner, requiring universities increasingly to generate their own financial revenue opportunities.
Productivity: Finally, higher education must move from measuring "excellence" by exclusion and expense to a set of productivity-based metrics that reflect outcomes and achievements in solving "real-world" problems and in enabling student success.
Universities now are being called upon to explore opportunities that will create innovative educational processes and campus cultures congruent with new realities. This will require a close and deep collaboration between universities and other public- and private- sector organizations, along with a willingness to experiment with new models and new alliances. As we increasingly work with partners accustomed to aggressive delivery schedules and product mixes that rapidly change according to market demands, the core of academic processes will be challenged, and adaptability must become integrated into institutional culture.
Filed in: Speeches - Revisioning the University 10/28/2009
As part of his 10th State of the University address, University of Akron President Luis M. Proenza promised to send this letter to the university community to ask that faculty, staff and students to "engage in timely and necessary conversations to bring... about (a mission- and vision-based university organizational structure). He said, "I am sure many lively and constructive ideas will be brought forward, but we must approach this with a sense of urgency because, as I have said before, doing business as usual is not an option."
Filed in: Statements to the Community - 2009 State of the University Address 10/27/2009
University of Akron President Luis M. Proenza underscored the successes of the past year and set in motion the process of steering the university toward the future during his 10th State of the University Address. As promised during his 2008 address, Proenza provided a progress report on the formal 10-year strategic plan, which he said "will chart the course to our new destination." As he outlined these plans, Proenza encouraged the audience to think about the origin of the name "Akron," derived from the Greek "akros," meaning "high place," in setting and achieving those goals.
Proenza outlined five strategic goals that will guide the university through the next 10 years and beyond:
- Strengthen Akron's historical commitment to inclusive excellence to enhance student access, transformation and success.
- Create vibrant, healthy, and diverse campuses that are deeply engaged with their surrounding communities.
- Establish selected cross-disciplinary clusters of academic distinction that are recognized nationally and internationally.
- Achieve national recognition for a curriculum in which entrepreneurship and 21st century global competitiveness skills are comprehensively embedded.
- Be a primary driver of economic competitiveness in northern Ohio and a leading contributor in the state.
Proenza also said that, in addition to budget challenges, an increasingly competitive environment for higher education and universities can't continue to operate with an educational model that is more than 200-years-old. He said he believes that the university must try even harder to be to bring down academic silo walls and build connections--emphasizing UA's relevance, connectivity and productivity.
Filed in: Speeches Statements to the Community - Five Myths of Entrepreneurship (morning commencement address) 08/15/2009
Filed in: Commencement Addresses - Challenging Fear (afternoon commencement address) 08/15/2009
Filed in: Commencement Addresses - Universities and Their Regions: The Akron Model 06/03/2009
Filed in: Speeches - Quarterly Letter to the Community 05/19/2009
Filed in: Statements to the Community - Connecting the Dots (May 2009 Commencement Address #4, Sunday) 05/10/2009
Filed in: Commencement Addresses - Graduation Advice (May 2009 Commencement Address #2, Saturday Morning) 05/09/2009
Filed in: Commencement Addresses - The Six-word Story (May 2009 Commencement Address #3, Saturday Afternoon) 05/09/2009
Filed in: Commencement Addresses
The University of Akron
302 Buchtel Common. Akron, OH 44325
Phone: 330-972-7111
Contact us
Text-Only
