海军上将麦瑞文在德州大学奥斯汀分校毕业典礼英语演讲稿.docx

1、海军上将麦瑞文在德州大学奥斯汀分校毕业典礼英语演讲稿海军上将麦瑞文在德州大学奥斯汀分校2019年毕业典礼英语演讲稿President Powers, Provost Fenves, Deans, members of the faculty, family and friends and mostimportantly, the class of 2019. Congratulations on your achievement.Its been almost 37 years to the day that I graduated from UT.I remember a lot of th

2、ings about that day.I remember I had throbbing headache from a party the night before. I remember I had aserious girlfriend, whom I later married-thats important to remember by the way-and Iremember that I was getting commissioned in the Navy that day.But of all the things I remember, I dont have a

3、clue who the commencement speaker wasthat evening and I certainly dont remember anything they said.Soacknowledging that fact-if I cant make this commencement speech memorable-I will atleast try to make it short.The Universitys slogan is,What starts here changes the world.I have to admit-I kinda like

4、 it.What starts here changes the world.Tonight there are almost 8,000 students graduating from UT.That great paragon of analytical rigor, Ask.Com says that the average American will meet10,000 people in their life time.Thats a lot of folks.But, if every one of you changed the lives of just ten peopl

5、e-and each one of those folkschanged the lives of another ten people-just ten-then in five generations-125 years-the class of2019 will have changed the lives of 800 million people.800 million people-think of it-over twice the population of the United States. Go one moregeneration and you can change

6、the entire population of the world-8 billion people.If you think its hard to change the lives of ten people-change their lives forever-youre wrong.I saw it happen every day in Iraq and Afghanistan.A young Army officer makes a decision to go left instead of right down a road in Baghdad andthe ten sol

7、diers in his squad are saved from close-in ambush.In Kandahar province, Afghanistan, a non-commissioned officer from the Female EngagementTeam senses something isnt right and directs the infantry platoon away from a 500 poundIED, saving the lives of a dozen soldiers.But, if you think about it, not o

8、nly were these soldiers saved by the decisions of one person, buttheir children yet unborn-were also saved. And their childrens children-were saved.Generations were saved by one decision-by one person.But changing the world can happen anywhere and anyone can do it.So, what starts here can indeed cha

9、nge the world, but the question iswhat will the world looklike after you change it?Well, I am confident that it will look much, much better, but if you will humor this old sailorfor just a moment, I have a few suggestions that may help you on your way to a better a world.And while these lessons were

10、 learned during my time in the military, I can assure you that itmatters not whether you ever served a day in uniform.It matters not your gender, your ethnic or religious background, your orientation, or yoursocial status.Our struggles in this world are similar and the lessons to overcome those stru

11、ggles and tomove forward-changing ourselves and the world around us-will apply equally to all.I have been a Navy SEAL for 36 years. But it all began when I left UT for Basic SEAL training inCoronado, California.Basic SEAL training is six months of long torturous runs in the soft sand, midnight swims

12、 in thecold water off San Diego, obstacles courses, unending calisthenics, days without sleep andalways being cold, wet and miserable.It is six months of being constantly harassed by professionally trained warriors who seek tofind the weak of mind and body and eliminate them from ever becoming a Nav

13、y SEAL.But, the training also seeks to find those students who can lead in an environment ofconstant stress, chaos, failure and hardships.To me basic SEAL training was a life time of challenges crammed into six months.So, here are the ten lessons I learned from basic SEAL training that hopefully wil

14、l be of value toyou as you move forward in life.Every morning in basic SEAL training, my instructors, who at the time were all Vietnamveterans, would show up in my barracks room and the first thing they would inspect was yourbed.If you did it right, the corners would be square, the covers pulled tig

15、ht, the pillow centered justunder the headboard and the extra blanket folded neatly at the foot of the rack-rack-thatsNavy talk for bed.It was a simple task-mundane at best. But every morning we were required to make our bedto perfection. It seemed a little ridiculous at the time, particularly in li

16、ght of the fact thatwere aspiring to be real warriors, tough battle hardened SEALs-but the wisdom of this simpleact has been proven to me many times over.If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. Itwill give you a small sense of pride and it will encour

17、age you to do another task and anotherand another.By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed.Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter.If you cant do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.An

18、d, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made-thatyou made-and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.During SEAL training the students are broken down into boat crews. Each cr

19、ew is sevenstudents-three on each side of a small rubber boat and one coxswain to help guide the dingy.Every day your boat crew forms up on the beach and is instructed to get through the surfzoneand paddle several miles down the coast.In the winter, the surf off San Diego can get to be 8 to 10 feet

20、high and it is exceedinglydifficult to paddle through the plunging surf unless everyone digs in.Every paddle must be synchronized to the stroke count of the coxswain. Everyone must exertequal effort or the boat will turn against the wave and be unceremoniously tossed back on thebeach.For the boat to

21、 make it to its destination, everyone must paddle.You cant change the world alone-you will need some help- and to truly get from your startingpoint to your destination takes friends, colleagues, the good will of strangers and a strongcoxswain to guide them.If you want to change the world, find someo

22、ne to help you paddle.Over a few weeks of difficult training my SEAL class which started with 150 men was down tojust 35. There were now six boat crews of seven men each.I was in the boat with the tall guys, but the best boat crew we had was made up of the thelittle guys-the munchkin crew we called

23、them-no one was over about 5-foot five.The munchkin boat crew had one American Indian, one African American, one Polish American,one Greek American, one Italian American, and two tough kids from the mid-west.They out paddled, out-ran, and out swam all the other boat crews.The big men in the other bo

24、at crews would always make good natured fun of the tiny littleflippers the munchkins put on their tiny little feet prior to every swim.But somehow these little guys, from every corner of the Nation and the world, always had thelast laugh- swimming faster than everyone and reaching the shore long bef

25、ore the rest of us.SEAL training was a great equalizer. Nothing mattered but your will to succeed. Not your color,not your ethnic background, not your education and not your social status.If you want to change the world, measure a person by the size of their heart, not the size oftheir flippers.Seve

26、ral times a week, the instructors would line up the class and do a uniform inspection. Itwas exceptionally thorough.Your hat had to be perfectly starched, your uniform immaculately pressed and your belt buckleshiny and void of any smudges.But it seemed that no matter how much effort you put into sta

27、rching your hat, or pressingyour uniform or polishing your belt buckle- it just wasnt good enough.The instructors would fine something wrong.For failing the uniform inspection, the student had to run, fully clothed into the surfzone andthen, wet from head to toe, roll around on the beach until every

28、 part of your body was coveredwith sand.The effect was known as a sugar cookie. You stayed in that uniform the rest of the day-cold,wet and sandy.There were many a student who just couldnt accept the fact that all their effort was in vain.That no matter how hard they tried to get the uniform right-i

29、t was unappreciated.Those students didnt make it through training.Those students didnt understand the purpose of the drill. You were never going to succeed.You were never going to have a perfect uniform.Sometimes no matter how well you prepare or how well you perform you still end up as asugar cooki

30、e.Its just the way life is sometimes.If you want to change the world get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward.Every day during training you were challenged with multiple physical events-long runs, longswims, obstacle courses, hours of calisthenics-something designed to test your mettle.

31、Every event had standards-times you had to meet. If you failed to meet those standards yourname was posted on a list and at the end of the day those on the list were invited to-a circus.A circus was two hours of additional calisthenics-designed to wear you down, to break yourspirit, to force you to

32、quit.No one wanted a circus.A circus meant that for that day you didnt measure up. A circus meant more fatigue-andmore fatigue meant that the following day would be more difficult-and more circuses werelikely.But at some time during SEAL training, everyone-everyone-made the circus list.But an interesting thing happened to those who were constantly on the list. O