Jon Stewart Commencement Address

On May 20, 2004, Jon Stewart gave the Commencement Address to the graduating class of the College of William and Mary in Virginia. What advice did he have to offer to the graduating class? Some snippets below, but check out his address for his speech in its entirety.

On receiving an honorary doctorate:

But it has always been a dream of mine to receive a doctorate and to know that today, without putting in any effort, I will. It's incredibly gratifying.
I'm sure my fellow doctoral graduates-who have spent so long toiling in academia, sinking into debt, sacrificing God knows how many years of what, in truth, is a piece of parchment that in truth has been so devalued by our instant gratification culture as to have been rendered meaningless-will join in congratulating me.

On the real world:

And the real world is not a restoration. If you see people in the real world making bricks out of straw and water, those people are not colonial re-enactors-they are poor. Help them.
I don’t really know to put this, so I’ll be blunt. We broke it. Please don’t be mad. I know we were supposed to bequeath to the next generation a world better than the one we were handed. So, sorry.

On life after school:

So how do you know what is the right path to choose to get the result that you desire? And the honest answer is this. You won’t. And accepting that greatly eases the anxiety of your life experience.
I was not exceptional here, and am not now. I was mediocre here. And I’m not saying aim low. Not everybody can wander around in an alcoholic haze and then at 40 just, you know, decide to be president.
College is something you complete. Life is something you experience. So don’t worry about your grade, or the results or success.