Daring to Move Greatly Into the Future

Graduation is a time of excitement, as former students move on to their next phase of life. In that moment, the thrill of finishing a monumental task collides with the reality of what comes next. Combine this with the surreal pandemic event of 2020, and graduation season becomes a time of vulnerability and heightened uncertainty about what the future brings.

A counter-intuitive shift toward embracing vulnerability, exposing ourselves to potential failure, may just be the key to success. I know on the surface this sounds crazy. We worry about our vulnerability to diseases known and unknown. The news is full of stories about threats to our security and economic future. Our political candidates do everything they can to avoid criticism. Yet I'm advocating that you deliberately leave yourself exposed.

Teddy Roosevelt perhaps said it best in his 1910 "Citizenship in a Republic" speech:

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly..." In her book, "Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead," Dr. Brené Brown contends that vulnerable moments are those when bravery and courage are at work. Vulnerability and courage, it seems, go hand in hand. Brown, a University of Houston research professor and social emotion expert, explains: "Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren't always comfortable, but they're never weakness." When we think of a confident, inspirational, forward-thinking person, vulnerability is one of the first things we look for — although it is one of the last things we want others to see in ourselves. Therein lies the paradox: To be truly courageous, we must make ourselves vulnerable, becoming Roosevelt's proverbial person in the arena. This advice holds true far beyond the day one crosses the stage (real or virtual) and graduates. If there ever was a season to celebrate grit, resilience, and the courage to be vulnerable, this is it. No one can tell us what the future holds for our UCSF learners — or, for that matter, any of us. That's because we haven't created it yet. I encourage you to embrace the adventure of what's next to come, be courageous with your creation, and dare to move greatly into the future. We will get beyond this, and the future is bright.