Donovan Livingston Commencement Speech

In some aspects of life, society begs for perfection; It holds you to the highest of standards.
This is what Donovan Livingston addressed in his commencement speech at Harvard University. In his speech Livingston stresses the importance of being yourself and quit the dreams of being perfect. Donovan Livingston uses robust phrases to educate and influence the public to not be scared to step up to the next level, to become the start of a movement, or to be the one that breaks social injustice. Donovan Livingston crafted is speech using a plethora of metaphors to appeal to the publics’ emotion and help them create a mental image inside their minds. He conveys this metaphor when he says, “At the core, none of us were meant to be common. We were born to be

Another metaphor Livingston uses in his Commencement Speech would be, “I look each of my students in the eyes, and see the same light that aligned Orion’s Belt and the pyramids of Giza. I see the same twinkle That guided Harriet to freedom. I see them. Beneath their masks and mischief, Exists an authentic frustration; An enslavement to your standardized assessments.” This shows the many types of lights that influenced people in the past to be brave, strong, and courageous. The Orion’s belt was known for the positioning of the early civilizations on our planet and how it gave people hope, therefore naming it after the Greek hero, Orion. The pyramids of Giza are known to be the oldest world wonder, as well as it can be viewed as the “pyramid below the eye” behind the one-dollar bill. It was known to bring the light and hope into Egypt as it was viewed as the “god’s eye” as it watched over them and provided water to the Egyptian civilizations if they pleased him. These were just two examples of the three that conveyed the purpose of hope and following your dreams; In addition, Donovan also mentioned “enslavement to standardized assessments” to tell the public that tests aren’t the only