Advice on your graduation

I was recently asked to give college graduation advice to a dear friend and longtime business colleague, as his daughter is about to graduate from college. Here is what I wrote:

You will have lots of things competing for your time once you graduate. And time is our most important commodity.

Don't forget two things:

1. Have fun. Have fun! We are not meant to only work in our lives. We are meant to be playful like animals are, and not just to pass our days but to enjoy them. Dance if you like to dance. Look at art once a week - or every day - if that brings you pleasure. Listen to music you love or play sports you enjoy. Or take a walk to nowhere, enjoying the trees and leaves along the way. However you have fun, enjoy! Don't put this off for retirement or even for one more day or week.

2. Don't forget about love. Career will always pull you. And ice cream and a thousand other things. But love adds depth and texture to life. Through love we learn about our best qualities and the ones we want to improve. Make time for love. Focus on love. And you will be richly rewarded. Love does not need to be romantic but it can be. You can LOVE your friends and be caring and so kind and considerate of them and what's important to them. You can love yourself. You can love even (gasp!) your parents. Love doesn't arrive at our doorstep, as the great Buddhist meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg says. Love is a verb. Live with this verb present in all of your days, in every interaction possible.