FINDING YOUR IKIGAI Excerpts from the Commencement Address by Caroline Edsall Littleton '02 on June 10. people who've watched each other grow up. We know things about each other that future acquaintances may never have access to.” After I said that, I went on to college and law school, lived in France for two years, clerked for three different judges, and have spent the past several years at a law firm. I have met lots of wonderful people, and made many true friends, along the way. But my St. Stephen's and St. Agnes friends are my best friends. To this day, they know me better than anyone else, and I am at my most comfortable and relaxed when I am with them. Now they all have babies, and I know they will teach me how to be a mom, and I am more grateful than ever to this school for bringing us together. The second truth is that I told my class they were, and I quote, “an amazing group of people, so talented and so unique.” I told them all that we should “cherish our last few hours together, because this school and this class, they were about to become the past, but they were things never to be forgotten and forever to be learned from.” I knew that my classmates were an impressive bunch back then, but learning more about them in the years since, and watching what they have become, has left me speechless at times. In the interest of time, I'll name only two examples, but there are so many.
I stood in this very spot 15 years ago — delivering a speech to my fellow classmates. When it came time to begin preparing my remarks for today, I thought listening again to what I'd said back in 2002 would be a good place to start. After a couple of hours of digging, my parents found the old videotape with the recording, and I went to their house one weekend to watch. I jotted down some nuggets from the speech that struck me as having been proven true in this past decade and a half. As well as a pretty big nugget that struck me as in need of further reflection and expansion. So consider the rest of what I say to be something like two truths and a lie — or better, two truths and an update. At the ripe old age of 32, I am still hesitant to attempt to bestow wisdom or life lessons to others, but I can tell you what my experiences have confirmed and taught me since I walked these grounds back in 2002. The first truth is that I said to my fellow classmates, “We've grown up together, and there's a special connection between
Example No. 1: Back in January, one of my classmates posted on Facebook a childhood photo of herself from 1989. But this photo, and the caption, were no ordinary Facebook post. From them I learned that my classmate had spent the first five years of her life in war-torn Iran. Her family tried to escape numerous times, and the picture she posted was of a stay in Ankara, Turkey — a failed attempt, as they had to return to Tehran soon after. Later, they would make it to Tokyo, where after living three months in a motel, they were denied visas by the U.S. embassy, but told to try again in three more months. That time, it worked, and they were able to come to America, where our paths crossed here on St. Stephen's Road. When we were in school together, I knew this classmate was from Iran. But that's all I knew. I didn't know that her country and her family had been torn apart by war. I didn't know that she had travelled the world, trying to make it to the United States. It took me 15 years to learn those details, and still I know only tidbits — I'm sure that she and her parents have so much more to tell. Example No. 2: Another one of my classmates has made over 2 million edits to Wikipedia articles. From our days at St. Stephen's and St. Agnes, I remember him winning geography bees and knowing everything there was to know about opera.
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