Below is a graduation speech I gave back in high school. I'd like to share this message again, even though it was tailored to my classmates. It also ties into my blog's Crayola inspired title.

Class of 2007, “How many of you are artists? Would you please raise your hand? No, really, if you think you are an artist, raise your hand.” Hmmm. That’s disappointing. (Few raise their hand)

A Hallmark graphic designer, Gordon MacKenzie, posed this same question when he visited elementary schools to discuss his profession. In first grade, the entire class would enthusiastically shoot up their hands to claim they were artists. In second grade, about three-fourths of the students raised their hands, somewhat less energetically. And by sixth grade, the entire class fell silent, and everyone turned their heads to see who would admit to such “deviant behavior.” This is a disappointing realization.

Because the definition of an artist is one who expresses him or herself through media such as writing, dance, drama, painting, film, and music. And although I know not everyone is an artist by this definition, we will all become artists in areas such as science or law, using either the human body or the constitution as our Crayola crayon.

Graduates, up to this point, our teachers, counselors, and parents have provided us with coloring books complete with dark, black lines within which we have been told to neatly color. If Mr. Deuger or Mrs. Metcalf told us to color Mickey Mouse’s shoes yellow, then we colored those shoes with the perfect yellow crayon.

But starting tomorrow, life is going to provide us with a new coloring book. And this time the lines are going to fade throughout college until blank pages present themselves before us and our little crayon. We will now need to create our own lines to color in between. And life is going to demand we produce a masterpiece.

Pablo Picasso was one of the most prolific artists. He produced many abstract masterpieces with multi-colored people missing an eye, or perhaps sprouting an extra leg. It is a shame that so many people today do not understand his style. Many of us claim that our stick figures fare better than his creations, and that Picasso simply paints like a child. Ironically, Picasso possessed some of the finest technical skills. He had already learned how to draw perfect human figures and color within the lines. Picasso claimed he learned these skills in his youth, but it took him a lifetime to learn how to draw like a child. Now these “childlike” pieces are some of the most valued in the world.

They hang on the museum walls next to those paintings of which one makes fun. The entire canvas is painted blue, for example, with a small red dot in the middle. And the viewer standing next to you will whip out her checkbook for a quarter of a million dollars because she sees something you don’t.

Graduates, what kind of masterpiece will you paint in your life beyond high school? With what style, college, or career will you paint it? And is it going to be worth enough to you personally, to proudly raise your hand in a room full of people with different interests? If not, then tear out that blank sheet of paper, crumple it up, throw it away, and start new on clean paper, just as we will do tomorrow. Class of 2007, let’s paint our world!