Congrats, grads; now listen up

Published 2:43 pm Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Seniors, let me be among the first to congratulate you.

Your journey as a high school student is almost over.

In the coming weeks, you will receive your diploma and hopefully a round of applause from friends and family for a job well done.

Email newsletter signup

You certainly deserve it.

As a heads up, along with the applause, you’re going to receive a lot of advice.

People will tell you things like, chase your dreams.

Choose a career you love and then you’ll never have to work a day in your life.

Find joy in the simple things — like a home cooked meal, instead of three-day old pizza.

Make your bed every day.

Put your alarm clock somewhere you have to get up to turn it off.  This is actually really good advice for college freshmen with 8 a.m. classes. Remember it.

There’s a lot of wisdom in those pieces of advice. I graduated high school nearly 20 years ago, and I’m still trying to learn some of these things.

Hopefully you’ll be faster learners than I am.

With that hope, I’m going to tack on a few more words of wisdom for you graduates.

Don’t worry; they’re not really from me.

This is advice from Larry Luchino, the former president and CEO of the Boston Red Sox.

Luchino, is a Princeton graduate and attended law school at Yale, so despite his affiliation with the Red Sox (Go, Yankees!) he’s a pretty smart fellow.

Here are his top 10 rules for living.

10. Life must be fun. Kindness is essential. Have a good time. Hurt as few people as possible.

9. Be bold – do be prudent- but please take risks.

8. Smile, laugh and be pleasant.

7. Be strong enough to say, “I don’t know.”

6. Life is too hard to be lived alone. Find time for your family.

5. Stay in touch with the people who matter to you.

4. Hold within yourself a capacity for outrage at injustice.

3. Don’t be colorblind. Enjoy our enriching differences.

2. Seek balance. A rich life is a balanced life.

1. Help some people along the way.

Now, make your bed, move your alarm clock, chase your dreams and make a difference in the world.

We all need you to be successful at whatever it is your called to do.