Commencement Address by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. gave a commencement address at Cardiga, a private middle school which his adopted son attened. His speech shows how he views things from different perspectives. This is a typical way of thinking by someone trained in law. His words are so precise and direct, which is a also a typical way of talking by a justice officer too. Following are highlights of his speech. Very eloquent, very influential and very organic and unscripted.

From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly so that you will come to know the vale of justice. I hope that you will suffer betrayal, because that will teach you the importance of loyalty. Sorry to say, but I hope you will be lonely from time to time so that you don’t take friends for granted. I wish you bad luck again from time to time, so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either. And when you lose as you will from time to time, I hope ever now then your opponent will gloat over your failure. It is a way for you to understand the importance of sportsmanship. I hope you’ll be ignored so you know the importance of listening to others. And I hope you will have just enough pain to learn compassion. Wether I wish these things or not they’re going to happen, and wether you benefit from them or not will depend upon your ability to see the message in your misfortunes.

You should be yourself, but you should understand what that means. Unless you are perfect, it does not mean don’t make any changes. In certain sense something better. People say be yourself because they want you to resist the impulse to conform to what others want you to be. But you can’t be yourself if you don’t learn who you are, and you can’t learn who you are unless you think about it.

If there is one thing I could add to chief justice’s speech is that: I wish you experience a hardship in life so that you will know how fortunate you are. Don’t flash your wealth to those unfortunates, instead, use your privilege and power to help others.