Some Thoughts on the Real World by One Who Glimpsed It and Fled
Background
Five years into drawing Calvin and Hobbes — and five years after enduring nothing but rejection letters — Bill Watterson returned to his alma mater and gave the graduating class a speech about the things the real world would try to talk them out of: playfulness, unprofitable work, and defining success for themselves. Fifteen years later, David Foster Wallace would stand on the same stage to deliver “This Is Water.”
No recording exists — fitting, for the most private man in cartooning. The text survived because students kept passing it around.
From the speech
On work that’s done for its own sake:
It’s surprising how hard we’ll work when the work is done just for ourselves… If I’ve learned one thing from being a cartoonist, it’s how important playing is to creativity and happiness.
On the years of rejection before the strip:
There is no such thing as an overnight success. You will do well to cultivate the resources in yourself that bring you happiness outside of success or failure. The truth is, most of us discover where we are headed when we arrive.
On turning down the merchandising empire:
Selling out is usually more a matter of buying in. Sell out, and you’re really buying into someone else’s system of values, rules and rewards.
On defining your own life:
To invent your own life’s meaning is not easy, but it’s still allowed, and I think you’ll be happier for the trouble.
And the closing thought:
Your preparation for the real world is not in the answers you’ve learned, but in the questions you’ve learned how to ask yourself.
A comic tribute
My favorite cartoon of all time is Calvin and Hobbes, and I love Gavin Aung Than for making a tribute to Bill Watterson — the cartoonist behind the wonderful little boy and his imaginary tiger. Gavin drew his own comic around Watterson’s words, and the quote running through it comes from this very speech.
Read “A Cartoonist’s Advice” at Zen Pencils →
Gavin Aung Than’s illustrated tribute, drawn in the spirit of Calvin and Hobbes
Go to the source
Read the full speech at NPR →
From NPR’s “The Best Commencement Speeches, Ever” collection
The long-running fan copy at MIT →
The text as Kenyon students passed it down since the ’90s
Archived copy at the Internet Archive →
A permanent snapshot, in case the page above ever disappears