Finding Your Why: A Response to Harrison Butker’s Commencement Speech

With the current outrage being experienced across the country in response to the commencement speech given by Kansas City Chiefs kicker, Harrison Butker, at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas it is important to note that there is a time and a place for everything. Regardless of whether one might agree with his statements on personal happiness, fulfillment, and a woman’s place in the world, all statements have a time and place where they can be accepts by others. This commencement speech however, was not the time nor place in spite of being at a strict Catholic College. The purpose of a commencement speech is to send the new graduates off into the world full of motivation and purpose to achieve their dreams and goals. It is not to undercut and undermine their past, present, and future by telling the graduates their lives do not truly begin until they become mothers, and that the corporate world cannot possibly fulfill them in life and bring meaning to their existence. As a Catholic I agree that one purpose of each man and woman is to come together in marriage and raise good kids to one day send off in the world to do the same. However, this is not a person’s only purpose in life, but merely a facet of their potential. Many people around the world are filled with joy and fulfillment through their occupation, while many others are filled with happiness and pride by being stay at home mom’s. What’s most important is that all people are given a choice as to how they wish to achieve personal happiness and fulfillment, rather than being told by others how to achieve those things. No person or organization can know what will bring purpose to your life, this is something that each individual must find on their own through self-discovery and stepping outside of your comfort zone. At the end of the day, you are the one who has to live with your decisions, so choose to live life in a way that will lead to your greatest achievable happiness.