Graduating at 60—Inspiration Minus the Cap and Gown

Patty Lowell
Sep 19, 2024
3 min read

Updated: Sep 24, 2024

After spending more than 10 years of my midlife career as a school administrator, I have attended my fair share of commencement addresses. Usually full of predictable platitudes and always way too long for graduates eager to get to the post-ceremony celebrations, these sermons crafted to inspire frequently fall on deaf ears.

But what if these speakers, who surely spend hours carefully crafting their words of inspiration and wisdom, could find a whole new, way more attentive audience -- midlife woman eager to reinvent themselves?

Recently, while researching a story on downshifting into retirement, I came across Roger Federer’s 2024 commencement address at Dartmouth where he talks about dealing with the challenges of starting a new chapter.

I was surprised to find so many golden nuggets that applied not just to 20-somethings looking to make their mark but to gals like me, full of our own wisdom and experience yet looking for new ways to continue growing and contributing.

In his address, Federer focuses on the dilemma of finding your “next.”

“Like you, I’m figuring out what that is. Graduates, I feel your pain. I know what it’s like when people keep asking what your plan is for the rest of your life. They ask me, ‘Now that you are not a professional tennis player, what do you do?’ I don’t know, and it’s okay not to know. So, what do I do with my time?”

We feel you, Roger. Turning the page and seeing all that blank space can be daunting. That’s why we need a little inspiration and encouragement. And a commencement address may just be the perfect place to find it.

If you think about it, graduation speeches generally focus on encouraging listeners to choose courage in this new chapter, find purpose in how you spend the precious decades that lie ahead and remain connected to friends and family, as isolation is a direct onramp to suffering.

Actress Jane Lynch, who finally “made it” at the age of 40 with her breakout role in “Best in Show” points to the importance of saying “Yes…and” in her address at Smith College in 2012.

“Affirming what life gives you, all of it, the joy, the success, the sadness, the fear, and then doing something significant with it. Embrace what is happening to you, even if it’s something you dread or detest, then you have the opportunity to own it, learn from it, and make it something extraordinary and impactful.”

Her comments about tackling the fear of taking on something new and blowing open the doors of self-confidence offer a jolt of encouragement to anyone looking to jump into late-life entrepreneurship, “gray dating” or simply navigating the wretchedly crooked path to understanding Medicare Parts, A, B and WTF.

And no deep dive into researching the best commencement speeches would be complete without resurrecting the famous address by Steve Jobs at Stanford University in 2005 where he simply advises listeners to “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”

As we jump eagerly, blindly, and yes, maybe even foolishly into a vivacious life as over-60 women, may we all feel the pull of inspiration from wherever we find it. And thank goodness we don’t have to put on one of those nylon robes and impossible-to-look-cute-in caps!