Video Metni

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  Thank you. I'm honored to be with you today for your commencement...
  

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  ...from one of the finest universities in the world.
  

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  Truth be told, I never graduated from college,...
  

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  ...and this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation.
  

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  Today, I want to tell you three stories from my life.
  

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  That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
  

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  The first story is about connecting the dots.
  

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  I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months,...
  

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  ... but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit.
  

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  So why did I drop out?
  

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  It started before I was born.
  

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  My biological mother was a young, unwed graduate student...
  

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  ...and she decided to put me up for adoption.
  

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  She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates.
  

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  So everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife...
  

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  ...except that when I popped out,...
  

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  ...they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl.
  

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  So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking,...
  

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  ..."We've got an unexpected baby boy. Do you want him?" They said, "Of course."
  

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  My biological mother found out later that my mother had never graduated from college...
  

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  ...and that my father had never graduated from high school.
  

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  She refused to sign the final adoption papers.
  

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  She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would go to college.
  

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  This was the start in my life.
  

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  And 17 years later, I did go to college.
  

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  But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford...
  

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  ...and all of my working class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition.
  

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  After six months, I couldn't see the value in it.
  

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  I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life...
  

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  ... and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out.
  

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  And here I was, spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life.
  

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  So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out okay.
  

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  It was pretty scary at the time but looking back,...
  

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  ...it was one of the best decisions I ever made.
  

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  The minute I dropped out, I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me...
  

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  ...and begin dropping in on the ones that looked far more interesting.