J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

As I go through life on the web, I am sent, or I discover sites with what the Americans call “Commencement Addresses”. These are addresses to students at graduation, usually delivered by someone middle-aged and successful and occasionally entertaining. Sometimes the advice is earnest, sometimes light-hearted, occasionally practical. Never is it acted upon. People know better.

I never thought I’d end up a night cabbie, driving little old ladies and their groceries in the afternoon, transporting public servants to and from the airport in the evening, wheeling drunks home in the wee hours, and spending the honest hours of the morning and noon fast asleep.

I had grander plans in mind.

I tried several of those ideal careers, and I have never found one as satisfying or stress-free as driving a cab. It’s the smiles that make it for me. Making people happy, getting people to where they need to go efficiently, comfortably, safely. Feeling useful. Exceeding expectations, as the motto of the cab company goes.

Plus I get to eat as much midnight fast food as I want, and drink bucketfuls of cold coffee. It’s all good.

The only downside is the kangaroos. They jump out at you without warning or roadsense or money to pay the fare. If you and they are moving fast enough, they can come in through the windscreen and thrash around in the front seat trying to get out, and they can kill you. Kangaroos are just big balls of muscle with claws on the ends, and they scare me.

It’s not the drunks and the crazies that bother me, it’s the herbivores.

That’s one piece of advice I’d like to give my younger self. Don’t worry about what’s going to happen tomorrow or next week or next month or in your retirement. It’ll work out. Keep your mind in the present and watch out for the shapes hurtling out of the sudden darkness. It’s the things you aren’t worried about you should be worrying about.

Sometimes a half-second can mean life and death. The difference between going home to your wife in a warm bed or her getting a call to come see you torn up and drugged out on a hospital bed. Just a fraction of a second can bring decades of careful planning to nothing.

Keep your mind in the present and your eye on the ball.

–Peter Mac

Related posts:

1. 1 March 2010: Newsletter
2. 18 June 2010: Death by suicide, music by Cat
3. 30 January 2010