I'll confess that I started reading this post by Matthew McConaughey on Medium rather cynically. It's a commencement address he gave to the University of Houston and I figured it would be full of a bunch of "reach for the stars" and "work hard" crap. And it is, but not in a crappy way, because it's really well-written. Plus, I needed to imagine each word spoken in his classic Southern drawl.

I particularly like what he says in number 5 about "Process of elimination" and how figuring out who and where you are NOT is just as important as figuring out who and where you ARE:

Is it any coincidence that's the most-shared sentence from that article? I guess it means I'm not alone. 

I also really like this part:

Those people/places/things being, of course, all the stuff that's ultimately a waste of time. Will I stop spending pre-bedtime endlessly scrolling through Pinterest when I told myself I'd read a real book? No, probably not all the time, but that process of elimination is something to think about on a larger scale.

This week marks ten years since I graduated college (holy shit), which shows that the things we're trying to figure out at 21 still matter at 31. And probably will at 41 and beyond.

I only wish Matthew McConaughey had spoken at my graduation. I can't even remember anything about the woman that did, except that she gave a super abridged version because it was raining and we were all sick and hungover. Or was that just me?