I wish you bad luck 

Luck and misfortune are closely intertwined.

– Thomas Muller

Bad things will happen and many of us may call it ‘bad luck, fate or destiny. Whatever it is I hope you find the courage to make the most of your bad luck, to turn your pain and trauma into art, and to turn all your defeats into one loud victory.  

In 2017  Chief Justice John Roberts gave an unconventional commencement speech at his son’s ninth-grade graduation and some of his words were “ I wish you bad luck”.  I remember a lot of speeches, but none stuck quite like this one.

 It’s naïve to think we will live a scratch-free life with no scrapes on our knees. That all doors will open for us if we “work” hard enough or “try” hard enough. I remember how excited I was when I graduated thinking I could accomplish anything with the right “mindset”

 Oh, was I wrong, I don’t think anyone prepared me for the circus I had to encounter upon graduating or growing up. In a way, this is what life is a circus, a spectacle and the trick is to find a way to laugh, learn and grow from it.

 I leave you with my favorite part of Chief Justice Johns Roberts Speech:

“Now the commencement speakers will typically also wish you good luck and extend good wishes to you. I will not do that, and I’ll tell you why. From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly, so that you will come to know the value of justice. I hope that you will suffer betrayal because that will teach you the importance of loyalty. Sorry to say, but I hope you will be lonely from time to time so that you don’t take friends for granted. I wish you bad luck, again, from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either. And when you lose, as you will from time to time, I hope every now and then, your opponent will gloat over your failure. It is a way for you to understand the importance of sportsmanship. I hope you’ll be ignored so you know the importance of listening to others, and I hope you will have just enough pain to learn compassion. Whether I wish these things or not, they’re going to happen. And whether you benefit from them or not will depend upon your ability to see the message in your misfortunes.”

 So, see the messages in your misfortunes.

 

You can read the full speech here.