Gavin Aung Than created a wonderful comic around a quote taken from the graduation speech Bill Watterson gave at his alma mater, Kenyon College, in 1990. Watterson is the man behind the widely acclaimed Calvin and Hobbes comic strip.
The entire speech is full of great advice. Than’s comic is based around this quote:
Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it’s to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered a flake. A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential — as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth.
You’ll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you’re doing. There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you’ll hear about them.
To invent your own life’s meaning is not easy, but it’s still allowed, and I think you’ll be happier for the trouble.
While there are no prints of this comic planned, I made my own as a reminder of Watterson’s advice.
