Need some inspiration? Check out these commencement speeches

As a new set of graduation caps are thrown and a new group of college alumni head out into the real world, universities  leave graduates with one last gift, advice from this season’s commencement speakers. Thanks to the magic of internet streaming the rest of us can also benefit from that knowledge.

This year we saw a prolific group of newsmakers, political figures and celebrities speak at college graduations throughout the country. From President Barack Obama to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, here’s our roundup of the sage wisdom dished out at this year’s commencement speeches.

1. Steven Spielberg
Harvard University, Massachusetts
Thursday May 26th, 2016

I want to be clear that your intuition is different from your conscience. They work in tandem, but here’s the distinction: Your conscience shouts, ‘Here’s what you should do,’ while your intuition whispers, ‘Here’s what you could do.’ Listen to that voice that tells you what you could do. Nothing will define your character more than that.

2. President Barack Obama
Rutgers University, New Jersey
Sunday May 15th, 2016

Cynicism is so easy, and cynics don’t accomplish much. As a friend of mine who happens to be from New Jersey…A guy named Bruce Springsteen, once sang ‘they spend their lives waiting for a moment that just don’t come.’ Don’t let that be you.  Don’t waste your time waiting.

3. Lin Manuel Miranda
University of Pennsylvania
Monday May 16th, 2016

There will be blind alleys and one-night wonders and soul-crushing jobs and wake-up calls and crises of confidence and moments of transcendence when you are walking down the street, and someone will thank you for telling your story because it resonated with their own.

4. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)
Bridgewater State University, Massachusetts
Saturday May 14th, 2016

What makes your heart flutter and your stomach clench, what makes you wake up ready to go, and what makes you grind your teeth? One of the hardest things in the world of Twitter and Facebook and Snapchat is to carve out time just for yourself … making it a priority to develop yourself as totally separate from what anybody else thinks. If you figure that out, nothing will be more valuable.

5. Sheryl Sandberg
University of California, Berkeley
Monday May 16th, 2016

I used to go to sleep worrying about all the things I messed up that day—and trust me that list was often quite long. Now I try really hard to focus on each day’s moments of joy.

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