MIREILLE'S MUSINGS: Important Graduation Celebration

For the past ten years, part of my role as "little first lady of the university" (of the New York Institute of Technology, where my husband is president) means attending graduation. It's always very moving for me. And it's still such a foreign thing, something I wish we had in the old continent. After all, finishing your university education is cause for celebration.

Of course, I'm also always eager to hear my husband's message to the students who are about to get their degrees...a new topic every year except for a short phrase that always brings tears to my eyes:

“Think deeply, speak gently, love much, laugh often, work hard, give freely, pay promptly and be kind.”

At a time where so much of this is missing or decreasing or sloppy, and with nastiness—read frustration and unhappiness—increasing, particularly on the Internet, it's a phrase to reflect upon and act upon if any item on the short list is missing in your daily life. It certainly will help you live "bien dans sa peau."