Advertisement

Midweek Motivation - Chadwick Boseman Commencement Speech

This is flat out amazing.

Boseman gave the commencement speech at his alma mater Howard University's 2018 graduation. 

I won't spoil all it but he tells a really cool story about randomly bumping into Muhammad Ali while wandering around campus lost both mentally and literally.

Every great commencement speech refers to a great "anchor" in it that it's speaker ties everything back to. In Boseman's case he uses the famous hill on campus as a metaphor for struggles of all different kinds - academic, financial, social, distractions of various sorts, etc. He emphasizes the importance of how being able to overcome struggles is the name of the game and what it's all about. Not playing the victim card. Taking pride in the little things, and building foundations that true success is built upon. So many fantastic messages.

Eloquent doesn't begin to describe how well-spoken Boseman is giving this speech. He even adlibs and goes off-script several times. (Yes, I know he was an award-winning actor whose profession revolved around memorizing and delivering lines, but still.)

The more we learn about this man's life off-screen the more the realization of losing him stings. Such a positive influence that is so scarce in this world today. 

R.I.P.