Jonathon Youshaei
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Jonathon Youshaei at Deerfield, 2009
A Deerfield High School address about refusing the 2/7ths life, taking daily risks, learning from failure, protecting dreams, and becoming fully present with people.
Speech arc
- 01Deerfield 2009
Opening move
- 02Student speaker
Speech beat
- 032/7ths people
Speech beat
- 04Become 7/7ths
Speech beat
- 05Take social risks
Speech beat
- 06Failure teaches
Speech beat
- 07Protect dreams
Speech beat
- 08World as hallway
Final charge
Metaphor: A fraction turns routine into a life diagnosis
Youshaei builds the speech around the image of 2/7ths people: students who push through weekdays while only truly living for weekends.
Origin
The math-book fraction becomes a compact way to ask whether the class is living all seven days or waiting through five of them.
Source
NPR preserves the signature 2/7ths excerpt and tags the speech under balance; a transcript mirror supplies the fuller arc.
Audience
Because the speaker is graduating with the class, the advice stays close to hallways, classrooms, teammates, and shared memory.
Youshaei builds the speech around the image of 2/7ths people: students who push through weekdays while only truly living for weekends.
Risk: Small acts of courage make ordinary days wider
The speech asks students to take risks in daily life: say hello, ask questions, start conversations, and refuse autopilot.
Social risk
A hallway greeting becomes a model for making someone else visible instead of retreating into awkward silence.
Academic risk
Asking the supposedly dumb question matters because learning is worth more than temporary embarrassment.
Presence
Daily life becomes more meaningful when students invest in the here and now instead of counting down time.
The speech asks students to take risks in daily life: say hello, ask questions, start conversations, and refuse autopilot.
Failure: Failure is evidence that life is being attempted
Youshaei argues that fear of failure produces a smaller life, while risk reveals work ethic, will, friendship, and memory.
Process
The finished product hides missed shots, spoiled attempts, and repeated practice; the speech asks graduates to respect the process.
Adversity
Failure tests what a person is made of and shows which friendships can hold under pressure.
Memory
Defining memories often come from moments when fear is faced with other people nearby.
Youshaei argues that fear of failure produces a smaller life, while risk reveals work ethic, will, friendship, and memory.
• Key takeaways •
Do not live only for weekends
Connects to balance.
Small risks make days fuller
Connects to risk.
Failure reveals strength
Connects to failure.
Dreams need protection
Connects to dreams.
Relationships make memory durable
Connects to connection.
Closing charge
The closing widens the hallway into the world and asks the class to live without regret, cherish relationships, and carry Deerfield into new rooms.
Become 7/7ths by sharing dreams and ordinary moments
Dreams
Graduates may not know their dream yet, but when it appears they should get after it, protect it, and dare to be idealistic.
Together
The speech values meals, stories, team songs, classrooms, and small interactions as the real texture of a full life.
Future
Hospitals, offices, and battlefields become the next classrooms; the world is now the hallway where the class keeps writing its story.
The closing widens the hallway into the world and asks the class to live without regret, cherish relationships, and carry Deerfield into new rooms.
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Transcript
The full transcript is hosted by the original publisher. Commencement Archive links to the source rather than republishing copyrighted text.
Read the full transcript at source →Provenance
Imported from NPR commencement archive; cross-referenced with Open Commencement DB
NPR archive last updated in 2015; destination availability has not been exhaustively rechecked | Open Commencement DB transcript; not independently verified against the original recording
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