graduation | 2013
“You Can Change
(Your Wild and Precious Life)” Upper School economics teacher Bret Sikkink delivered the commencement address at the 2013 graduation exercises. At once amiably self-effacing and pointedly frank, Mr. Sikkink’s remarks drove home the need for new graduates to take charge of their own lives — not so much by “discovering” themselves as by creating themselves. Following is the text of his address, very slightly edited for print publication.
I
am humbled to be here. As Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said, “A practitioner, like me, of the dismal science of economics — and it is even more dismal than usual these days — is not usually the first choice for providing inspiration and uplift.” But it turns out that if you read the lit on grad speeches — in this case you can follow my research by carefully googling “grad speeches” — there are basically two threads that reflect on the class and its chosen speaker. One is the impressive, serious scholar who gives an erudite yet rousing speech about the world grads will face. Lots of these things begin like the cartoon you may have seen, with an old man in an academic hood saying, “I know so much I don’t know where to begin.” The other has titles like “The Chumbawamba Principle.” They reflect poorly on the lowbrow tastes of the audience and the incongruence of the speaker, who is awkwardly wearing a tie and gown. If they weren’t funny we’d all prefer to be in bed. Since this is obviously the second kind of graduation address, I’m going to use an extended theme that’s easy to remember and has the added bonus of sounding like Baz Luhrmann is going to turn it into a music video: “You Can Change (Your Wild and Precious Life).” All right, maybe it’s not as pithy as if Jimmy Fallon or Amy Poehler had written it. When I was asked a month ago to prepare a speech for today, I decided to do so with the same general strategy that many of you use for important term papers and research projects. So late last night, I began… The time after high school is a chance to experiment. It’s up to you to decide if that experimentation is with new ideas, new habits and new types of people. Importantly, college is a chance to pick your learning. Take that seriously, and really 20 | Summer / fall 2013
learn. Learn broadly and think flexibly. For some, college is about nothing more than what economist Bryan Caplan calls the signaling model of education. He notes that when class is cancelled, some students rejoice. “Why cheer?” he asks. There are large opportunity costs to being in college, and you’re paying them to learn, according to the human capital model of education, which is also known as your parents’ and teachers’ model of education. This doesn’t pass Caplan’s cost-benefit test: If what you’re looking for is a party, there are lots of ways to find people to party with and still use your time productively. As poet Mary Oliver questions in “The Summer Day”: Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? Time is precious; so don’t plan to spend it all on Twitter and hangover cures and Super Stickman Golf... The filmmaker Stanley Kubrick phrased it more eloquently than I could on my own. He said, “The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile, but that it is indifferent; but if we can come to terms with this indifference, then our existence as a species can have genuine meaning. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.” Our own light! That’s your responsibility. Learn what your options are for supplying your own light. That’s the best kind of experimentation. You can change your own wild and precious life. Let’s keep it focused on you. As (the late author) David Foster Wallace put it in his famous commencement speech, “Think about it: there is no experience you have had that you are not the absolute center of. Other people’s thoughts and feelings have to be communicated to you somehow, but your own are so immediate, urgent, real.”
There is a cliché you hear this time of year — “be true to yourself.” I think it skips over a bigger issue. Who is this self that you should be true to? According to neuroscience research, your pre-frontal cortex is still strengthening the neural connections that calculate the consequences of your actions, and will be for a few years. In the meantime, the limbic system, a far more primitive and emotional part of the brain, seems to take the reins from time to time. Since the levels of dopamine in your brain are also much higher than those of us up here on the stage, everything you do seems a little more intense. Combine those two effects — you don’t rationally calculate costs very well, and life is permanently lived in the fast lane — well, I think that explains the tattoos… So. Are you true to your ASF persona? Are you true to your amygdala, your