Montréal, Quebec, Monday, June 6, 2016

Thank you for bestowing upon me this honorary degree from your distinguished and innovative school. I’m deeply touched to receive this tribute.

I’m honoured to be a friend of Concordia University, one of the most creative, forward-thinking, engaged schools in the country.

I’m also honoured to be here in Montréal and in this great province, where I lived with my family for many years.

And I’m honoured to be associated with a group of faculty and students who together are doing great things for this country and for our world.

I’m also honoured to have by my side Dr. Nora Volkow, who, like me, is receiving an honorary degree today.

I should also say that I’m truly happy to be here with you graduates—my peers in the class of 2016. You’re ready to take on anything the future has to offer and indeed to shape that future for the better. Thank you for making me a part of such a signal moment in your lives.

Northrop Frye—one of our country’s great teachers and scholars—pointed out that graduation from an institution of higher learning is one of the four epic moments in a person’s life—the other three being birth, marriage and death. I think he’s right.

Now, even though I’m a teacher by trade, I’m not going to give you a lecture. You’ve probably heard enough of those over the past few years to last you some time.

No. The best teaching and learning tool ever devised is the story. So here’s mine.

A philosophy professor stood before his students with a number of items in front of him: a very large empty jar, some rocks, a box of pebbles, a box of sand and a cold can of Diet Coke.

He picked up the empty jar and proceeded to fill it up with the rocks. He then asked his students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up the box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the spaces between the rocks. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. The students weren’t dummies. They smiled knowingly as they began to understand where the professor was going.

The professor then picked up the box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up whatever small bits of room were left in the jar.

His demonstration, he explained, was like life. The rocks are the big, important things—your family, your partner, your children, your health and, yes, even your education—anything that is so important to you that, if it were lost, you would be devastated. The pebbles are the other things that matter but not as much as the rocks, such as a house or car or job. The sand is everything else, he said, the little things in life.

If you put the sand into the jar first, there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for your life, the professor continued. If you focus all your time and energy on the small, meaningless stuff, you’ll never have room in your lives for the things that are most important to you.

So pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness, the professor concluded. There will always be time for the little things. Take care of the rocks first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.

Of course, there was one last item on the professor’s desk. One student asked, “What about the can of Diet Coke?” Now it was the professor’s turn to smile. “Never forget to share a cool drink with a friend,” he answered.

My story is straightforward and its lesson uncomplicated. Yet it’s a lesson worth remembering and reflecting upon regularly.

Your journeys are filled with amazing promise. You are chock full of knowledge, skills and experiences that you have gained here at this prestigious institution of higher learning.

Like me, you’re also privileged to live in a country that cherishes peace, freedom, democracy, justice, and equality and opportunity for all. These treasured Canadian values—so often taken for granted—will serve you well as you continue your journeys.

Yet what you have gained here at Concordia University and those enduring Canadian values constitute a two-way street. There is a give as well as a take.

So I pose this question to you and urge you to reflect upon it: How are you going to use your knowledge, skills and experiences and the bedrock values on which they rest to create a smarter, more caring country, to create a Canada of the keenest minds and kindest hearts?

You might be thinking: “Why is he asking me? I’m just getting started in my career.”

To those questions, I say: Yes, and you have the mix of energy, ambition and ideas that our country needs. And yes, you’re just starting out, but your country needs you to begin using your talents today. Very shortly, you will take a pledge that will support that.

For my part, I have made my mission as Canada’s governor general to bring Canadians of all ages, regions, cultures and walks of life together to create a Canada committed to innovation and inclusiveness, caring and compassion.

I ask you to join me in fulfilling that honourable mission by finding your own ways to make our country a smarter, more caring place for all Canadians.

Think of it as one of the rocks you must place in your jars.

Thank you.