89 Commencement Address Cushing Academy May 28
Will Day ’89 Commencement Address
Cushing Academy May 28, 2016 I want to start, right here, at Cushing Academy, 1987. You guys weren’t even born yet! I came to Cushing as a sophomore, having had a lousy freshman year at my hometown high school. Easiest explanation: I was disengaged and unmotivated. My parents had the good sense to realize that I needed a different kind of environment. A place where I could connect. A place that would give me a broader lens with which to view the world. A place that would allow ME to be me. My time at Cushing changed the course of my life. I’m sure of it. You see, I came from a big sports town—Darien, Connecticut—and while I loved playing lacrosse, ice hockey, and soccer, part of me was yearning to explore other paths as well, like art. Even then—at your age—I felt a sense of total freedom and possibility every time I looked at a blank canvas. It was nothing short of awe-‐inspiring to consider all the possibilities I could paint. “What does your heart want you to do?” is the question Bob Johnson asked. Talk about a generous question! “What does your heart want you to do?” There was no right or wrong. Whatever I answered brimmed with promise. No judgment, no expectations, no prodding me one way or another. My teacher simply wanted me to follow my heart. Ladies and gentleman, that lesson has stayed with me all my life and is the reason I became an artist.
But not straight away. There were plenty of other turns I took first… sometimes because I just wanted to explore the world, and sometimes because I felt the pressure to conform to a more “traditional” career. More recently, I followed my heart because I could no longer afford not to. That’s why I only became a full-‐time, professional artist seven years ago. It took decades of trial and error, experimentation, trust, love, and faith to reach this point. It was all worth it. That much I can tell you. Graduates, I’m standing before you a very fulfilled man. I’m married to the best woman in the world, my wife Aimee. I’m a father to two children: Spencer and Abby. I live in the community of my choice in Boulder, Colorado. And everyday I get to show up at my studio and create art. ALL OF IT feeds my soul. Right now your lives are a blank canvas; what you fill that canvas with is entirely up to you. You can and must make things happen at every juncture, including the moments where you feel life took a wrong turn. “How on earth did I wind up here?” you’ll wonder aloud. Trust me, I’ve been there. And I can tell you from experience, there is enormous value in recognizing how wrong turns can ultimately set you on the right path. The key is to keep moving forward. How? Three ways. Number 1, you must follow your heart. Number 2, you have to use your resources. And number 3, you must connect to the world. That’s it. Those three nuggets—they are THE essential ingredients to make things happen. Now, I’ve already told you that Cushing was the first place I learned to pay attention to the direction of my heart – nugget #1. My time here also instilled in me the desire to see and want to be part of the world – nugget #3. I need to give Mrs. Storm a shout-‐out here; she was my French teacher for three years and is the person who most
cultivated my passion for other cultures and languages. It was her voice I heard in my head when I made the decision years later to apply to the Peace Corps. That was in 1994. By then I’d graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a double major in International Studies and French. The Peace Corps hired me as a Community Development Agent in Sbikha, Tunisia. TUNISIA! A place I knew nothing about before packing my bags for my two-‐year assignment. I couldn’t have been more excited to explore North Africa! Tunisia’s history—if you are a history buff like me—is fascinating because it’s one of the few countries ruled by so many civilizations dating back to the Roman Empire. I could feel this history as I walked the streets of Tunis amid the Roman, French, and Islamic architecture. Everything was steeped in religious and cultural symbolism and ignited in me a real appreciation for architectural history. In Sbikha I was tasked with the goal of developing sustainable programs for the community. One of my jobs was to oversee a local youth house to help provide activities for the kids—anything to keep them out of trouble. I organized a coed Little League program, environmental programs, and of course, art experiences. All in Arabic. That was a doozy. I also saw an opportunity to support women artisans. They were selling gorgeous textiles, clothing, and rugs but needed a more viable marketplace. So I got a grant from Aid to Artisans to help fund a cooperative. I was 24 years old, and didn’t know the first thing about getting grant money! But I figured it out. Use your resources – nugget #2. It was enormously gratifying to contribute in this small way to helping local artists earn money. This was money they desperately needed to support their families. As you might imagine, the people
of Sbikha had very little material possessions. There were no cell phones at the time. There was no Internet. No iPads. This is a world you will never know. Value in Sbikha was measured by what residents could create from the land and by their own hands. They used their resources – nugget #2, and they taught me a lifelong lesson to use mine. Anything is within reach when we are purposeful with our intentions, and tap the ideas, knowledge, and passion to make the impossible possible. I want you to remember that. Use your resources and the impossible becomes possible. Living amid the purity and solitude of Sbikha unleashed my own creativity. I’d brought a few brushes and paints with me and found real joy in creative expression. The more I painted, the more I wanted to. Painting was nothing short of a spiritual experience for me. It fed me as an individual, but also on a communal level. Nugget #3 – connect to the world. People young and old stopped to watch me paint murals on the concrete walls where I lived. This was my first insight into how art transcends language and cultural barriers. The people yearned for connection. So together we began to paint murals. Our murals depicted the landscapes of North Africa and Tunisia’s own indigenous surroundings. Local leaders even organized an Art Day—a day for artists of all kinds to come together and celebrate nature and the African landscape. Painters. Sculptors. Poets. Musicians. It was magical—making things happen—in Sbikha. Never had I felt so good about the world, or my place and purpose within it, as I did living there. I tried really hard to bring that unbridled optimism home with me after my term in the Peace Corps came to an end. This was the summer of 1996, and I returned to Connecticut with one goal: to
change the world. But then my parents said, “OK. So what’s next?” And…you know…reality settled in. The transition wasn’t exactly easy. My home environment was a world apart from Tunisia. Very quickly I fell back into my old life and succumbed to the pressure of keeping up with my friends, many of whom were working on Wall Street. I was also caddying at a country club in Westchester and was kind of blown away by the money the clientele boasted; everyone it seemed worked on Wall Street. So what did I do? I went out and got a job on Wall Street! Remember I told you how wrong turns can ultimately lead you toward the right path? This was one of those turns. I used my resources – nugget #2, in my case a cousin, to pursue a job as a financial sales executive at Bloomberg. I was a pretty unlikely candidate. I had no corporate experience nor did I have an MBA. The team at Bloomberg was definitely skeptical about me, but I held my own. In fact, the guy who interviewed me made a big deal about the rigor of the job. He did not want to hire me so I looked him straight in the eye and said “You know, it was pretty challenging to be in the Sahara Desert alone, trying to make things happen. But I did. I learned to be resourceful. And if I could make it work there, I’m confident I can make it work here.” I got the job! I was so pumped! Working at Bloomberg was a good fit at first. I really pushed myself to learn all the technical requirements of the financial industry. Never did I feel the sense of awe or wonder or purpose that I felt in Tunisia, but I was still grateful for the experience, and gave it my all. You, too, will inevitably find yourselves in situations that aren’t quite right, and you will have to choose to be unhappy, or make things better. There was a reason I took this job, and I’m proud to say that I did everything in my ability to make it work. I stayed until
I knew that I’d done the best job I could. I stayed until I could no longer stifle my creativity amid the rigid confines of the job. I stayed until I could no longer ignore my heart – nugget # 1. So, obviously, I didn’t build my career at Bloomberg. But there was something enduring that came out of the job. There was this woman named Aimee whom I was intrigued by. She worked for a competitor and was stealing a lot of my clients! While trying to find out her sales secrets, we fell in love and got married. Aimee actually got me my next job, not on Wall Street, but working to sell Internet billing solutions. 1999 – you guys were just being born! This was the dawn of the Internet and let me tell you, everybody wanted a piece of it. It was a whole new world. Like so many people, I got swept up by the Internet frenzy, leaping to different companies in search of the next big thing. It was lightning-‐paced and thrilling. And… it wasn’t where I was meant to be. Once again, I’d found myself in a position that stifled my creativity. Once again, I had not followed my heart – nugget #1. What happened next took me toward earning a masters degree in architecture, moving to Los Angeles to work as an architect, and finally, to Boulder, Colorado in 2007. Why architecture? Aside from being a respectable, creative profession, it’s also the most business-‐minded of the arts programs, or so I thought. Pratt Institute had just started a new program in architecture, and I was accepted. I loved my time there, yet as I began to venture out in the business world as an architect, I was unprepared for how technical and structured the work really was. We’d moved to Los Angeles because of my job, and while it was a very colorful and creative environment, it turned out LA wasn’t at all the right place for our family. We just didn’t feel a connection. So we
decided to move to Boulder, Colorado. Boulder has a strong creative, entrepreneurial, and community spirit. We really wanted that. I was still working as an architect when we first moved to Boulder, though more and more I found myself disappearing into my happy place—the studio I’d set up in my basement. I felt such a release in the studio; it was where I was most alive, where truth and beauty came together for me. All I had to do was follow my heart on the blank canvas – nugget #1. Then the economy tanked a year later, in 2008. I lost my job. That was a blow. How would I support my family? I jumped at several odd jobs, and I was really scared. Very quickly I began to spiral into a pit of despair. Which wasn’t like me. But I kept painting through this dark time. And there is no doubt in my mind it saved me. I just kept putting paint on canvas and showing up to do what I was meant to do. Day after day. Night after night. I might have felt lost in the world, but art grounded me and renewed my faith. Realizing this with such clarity at such a fragile moment was a major turning point. There could be no refuting the direction of my heart – nugget #1 and that art was my connection to the world – nugget #3. This was a now or never moment. So I asked Aimee, “Hey, how do you feel about giving me two years to make a go as a full time artist? And she said… “In the worst economy we have ever seen? With two kids and a mortgage?” YEAH! Believe it or not, she said yes. Aimee, thank you. I love you. Talk about serendipity. That summer I entered the Boulder Downtown Arts Festival where I won a blue ribbon and sold three paintings. It was an amazing feeling, and affirmed everything I knew to be true about myself: I am an artist. I AM AN ARTIST.
My life came full circle the moment that I committed to my true path. I’m right where I want to be. Now, some of you probably think artists work in isolation, staring at the blank canvas all day. Well, that is not my business model. Yes, I do stare at the blank canvas. Yes, I do paint what’s in my heart. But I am actually more motivated and inspired by other people’s interests. Each of us has our own path. Success for me, I realized, is not manifesting my own ideas; it’s manifesting the beauty that others want to see. My process involves partnering with people and organizations to help make their visions a reality. Nothing excites me more than to have a creative dialogue with clients who then give me the freedom to put their stories on canvas. And that’s exactly what we did the other day, graduates. Right here at Cushing, the entire Class of 2016 painted this canvas with me. Each of you has made your mark on it—as individuals and, perhaps for the last time, as a community. I now present your stories on canvas. Isn’t it beautiful? I certainly hope you like it, and that it serves as a great memory for you. It’s only fitting that this painting now belongs to Cushing, a place that has nurtured generations of creative, confident, and globally minded students. Graduates, you are so fortunate to have had this wonderful foundation. Remember Cushing’s important ideals, and the faculty who will continue to care and support you as you journey forward. I, too, will be very proud to serve as a resource should you ever need it. I want to close with this powerful quote by Wassily Kandinsky, the Russian painter whose work has been a major influence for me.
“An empty canvas, apparently really empty, that says nothing and is without significance—almost dull, in fact is crammed with thousands of undertones and tensions and is full of expectancy.” Right now your lives are an empty canvas, full of expectancy and undertones and choices that you have yet to realize. The world is yours. It’s time for you to make things happen. What does your heart want you to do? Don’t be deterred by wrong turns that you may or may not take. Don’t give up! Just keep moving forward and remember these three nuggets. Nugget #1: FOLLOW YOUR HEART. Nugget #2: USE YOUR RESOURCES. Nugget #3: CONNECT TO THE WORLD. I wish you well, Class of 2016.
