A Timeless Sunscreen Advice

Wear Sunscreen: A primer for Real life by Mary Schmich

If you were to give a commencement speech to the young, kicking off a new chapter of their life, what would it look like?

Would it be Things I wish I knew when I was 20…30…40…? OR Would it be The Dos and Don’ts for an ideal life?

Would it be advise on love and heartbreaks? OR would it be on life goals, a flourishing career, and financial advice? 

With a kaleidoscope of experiences under your sleeve, would you ever advice the young to wear a sunscreen in a commencement speech? Sounds absurd, right? Maybe not!

Mary Schmich, an American journalist and former columnist for the Chicago Tribune wrote a provocative commencement speech for the class of 1997. She begins and concludes her speech advising people to use sunscreen. That’s not the only reason why it caught my attention. There’s another reason which I intend to reveal in the end.

Now I know you would be itching to scroll straight to the bottom :P

Before you do that, check-out the commencement speech. It’s funny, simple, and enriching.

Here it goes…

“Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ’97:

Wear Sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future, or worry, but know that worry is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind. The kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts. Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don’t waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long and, in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they’ll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings. They’re your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

The older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you’ll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you’ll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair or by the time you’re 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.”

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Why this commencement speech caught my attention…

• It became the basis for a successful song released in 1997 by Baz Luhrmann, "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)", also known as "The Sunscreen Song".

• The statement "Do one thing every day that scares you” is Schmich's original work, and yet frequently misattributed to Eleanor Roosevelt.

• Mary Schmich never gave this commencement speech. It floated around the internet with an erroneous claim of being an address by Kurt Vonnegut, an American author. Kurt later told The New York Times, "What she wrote was funny, wise and charming, so I would have been proud had the words been mine.”

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What would your commencement address look like???