"Whatever you build... build it to last," David McCullough

On Friday, May 8, I graduated from the University of Utah. David McCullough gave an inspiring commencement address. I've been thinking about it ever since. I just had to share a piece of it. You can read the complete address here.

"With its enormous towers of granite, then the tallest structures on the continent, and its use of steel cables, the Brooklyn Bridge combined the architecture of past and future. It was the start of the high rise city in America, but also in its way very like the ancient cathedrals of Europe, in that, rising above all else within sight, it was intended, as said, to stand as a testament to the aspirations of the civilization that built it…

So what will we build in the years ahead? What will you build, you of the new generation upon whom so many high hopes are riding?

Will you help navigate the troubled waters? Will you rise above avarice and indifference and self-pity? Will you be a generation of builders, not more mere spectators who leave creativity and performance and responsibility to others?

Will you take what you have learned here as inspiration to still greater learning?

Will you make your lives count?

The easy answer is time will tell. The better answer, I think, is it's up to you…"