About life, self-love and mental health – graduation speech 2022

It’s been a while since I last wrote a post here. I guess inspiration left me for a reason I’m still trying to understand.

Against all odds, last week I had to reach out to my creativity to write, which was nowhere to be found. I wasn’t looking for it, or even thinking about it. Going back to writing was something stuck in the back of my head. I knew I had to, at some point. Because it heals, it helps, it makes me feel a little bit more alive. But I just let go from all those feelings and kept going as if I never felt them.

Life sometimes can be weird. Why do we keep running away from the things that are good for us?

I don’t know, to be honest. It is as if we somehow could find stability in our own discomfort.

But anyways, I had to write a graduation speech, that was the opportunity that made me go back to my notebook. And while I was sitting in front of it, I told myself that if this was my opportunity to start writing again, to start healing, my speech should also be helpful, in one way or another, for those hearing it.

So there I was, talking to them as I have tried to talk to myself for the past year. Telling us that it is okay to fail. That it is okay not to be okay, to make mistakes, to be imperfect. All we have to do is be kind to ourselves, because it is when we least put pressure on ourselves that we are more likely to accomplish what should really matter to us, happiness and inner peace.

I must admit that, when I first received the invitation to hold this speech, my first thought was: I can’t do it. I spent a whole day at the office thinking how I could do such a thing. All my friends here know that I am from ESpain, and like a real Spaniard, I do have an accent when speaking in English. This used to be one of my biggest insecurities. But here I am now, embracing the fact that yeah, I do have a ESpanish accent. And you know, if my friends love it and laugh with it, who am I to take the fun away from them?

Now, seriously. I am sure that, by standing here today, I stand for many of you. Because I have seen you overcoming your fears and insecurities as well. I have seen many of my friends and classmates going from not saying even a word during the first tutorials, to delivering incredible presentations and expressing their opinions fluently and with confidence. So please, a round of applause to all of us who haven’t let our insecurities control us, and have taken this year as an opportunity to grow!!

This year, of course, hasn’t always been easy. When we all thought that COVID was over and we were going to be able to enjoy our student life to the fullest, it hit again. We all know that mostly January was such a harsh and grey month. But looking back to this time of the year, I am sure we all can think about funny moments. Let’s please never forget those hybrid tutorial sessions where people online were trying to put on a decent face in the big screens as if they were following the discussion in class (and well, for those of you that weren’t there with us-spoiler: they weren’t!) But hey, they still managed to pretend, and in the end that’s what mattered!

Dear colleagues, what we are celebrating today is a great achievement. But I don’t want us to leave this room only with this thought in our minds. Because if there is something that I think we have learnt this year, is that life is not just about successes, mostly in a place as competitive as the EU bubble.

We might fail and be rejected many times throughout our professional careers. But, what is life without imperfection, without failures, without mistakes? It doesn’t matter how many times we don’t get to our objective, because every time we think we have failed, we have actually gained the knowledge and the strength to continue. And to be honest, in a society where burn outs are commonplace, and mental health is at stake, it is okay if we don’t find the strength to do so. It is more than okay to take a break, and remember that resting is also an important part of productivity. Go for a walk, read the book you like, listen to good music, go for a beer and dance with friends. Because in the end, what society expects from us is not our responsibility, and it is not our achievements or failures that define us.

Don’t compare yourselves to others, run away from that burden. Do you really think that all those Linkedin posts have not being preceded by many rejections? Of course they have!! So please, don´t give expectations a meaningful place in your minds, and let that space to positive self-perception and self-love. Because to live a fulfilling life, we, first and foremost, need to love and be kind to ourselves. And like that, I am sure we will be on the right path to accomplish anything in life.

I wish you all a happy future and thank you for this amazing year!!