Tag Archives: commencement

Published Sunday, May 30, 2010 LOWELL, Mass. - Roger Goodell sent 40 letters to the NFL office in New York City looking for a job in 1981. Forty rejections came back. But more letters to NFL headquarters followed, until one day a weary league executive invited him to "stop by when you're in the neighborhood." "I told him I was in the neighborhood," recalled Goodell, who then drove all night from Pittsburgh to New York City to apply for what was supposed to be a three-month internship. Twenty-five years later, Goodell was appointed to his dream job: commissioner of the National Football League.

A True Story - Author Unknown

They walked in tandem, each of the ninety-three students filing into the already crowded auditorium. With rich maroon gowns flowing and the traditional caps, they looked almost as grown up as they felt.

Dads swallowed hard behind broad smiles, and moms freely brushed away tears.

This message is from a commencement speech made by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Anna Quindlen, at Villanova University.

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By Anna Quindlen

I'm a novelist. My work is human nature. Real life is all I know. Don't ever confuse the two, your life and your work.

You will walk out of here this afternoon with only one thing that no one else has. There will be hundreds of people out there with your same degree; there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you will be the only person alive who has sole custody of your life.