Steve Inskeep's advice to UMN Morris grads: 'You're allowed to laugh'
NPR Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep delivered words of wisdom this weekend at the University of Minnesota Morris commencement ceremony — some were his and some came from Twitter.
Inskeep told the crowd he’d asked Twitter followers what he should tell grads-to-be. “I received hundreds of suggestions — and some of them were not even from Elon Musk,” he joked.
Among the crowdsourced insights: dial back on smartphone use; move somewhere warmer (ope!); drive to the classic Dairy Queen in Starbuck, Minn.; vote; remember Mother’s Day; and “don't crowdsource content,” he said, followed by a meme-worthy shrug and a laugh from the audience.
The best insight, he said, came in a single word: ikigai, “a Japanese concept referring to a sense of purpose,” Inskeep said, conceding he didn’t known the word until he looked it up.
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Inskeep had a special reason to come to Morris. A friend of his 14-year-old daughter Ana lives in Morris now, and that friend’s mom also teaches at the university.
“Some of you may travel far, some of you may not travel at all. But I hope you have all the experiences you can. Doesn't matter if you go to China or the Dairy Queen at Starbuck — I hear it's good,” he said. “Or just go home and look after your mom. Look around at the changing seasons, and the faces of the people you meet. Try to know the story of the place where you live and the stories of the people in it.”
Keep laughter nearby, he said, and jokes are usually always acceptable.
“No matter how bad things may may get, you're allowed to laugh any way that you can,” he said. “Knock-knock jokes are cool. Dad jokes are fine. Fart jokes? Totally fine.”
‘You just keep going. It’s all right.’
Post-speech and tassels-to-the-left moment, Inskeep told MPR News live radio has taught him about making mistakes — lots of them. Messing up offers an opportunity to work toward getting it right.
“You make lots of mistakes in what you're saying exactly, or how you intended to say it or whatever. You stumble around, but if you just keep going. It's all right,” he said.
Inskeep’s hope for grads is to try, learn and repeat.
Hopefully, he said, we exemplify that in our relationships, racial conversations and climate issues.
“We're just continually trying to revise what we've done before. And I think the best thing is for us to be open to that revision."