// graduates 2026
The Speech of 2026
For the graduates, by the graduates.
We need everyone's help 100,000 sentences and stories from recent graduates around the world. If you had one sentence to say about your graduation, before any speaker, before any ill or good advice what would you say? A sentence of gratitude. Of anger. Of every emotion you carry. Or a message broadcast to every other graduate on Earth.
In a year where graduation stages echo with talk of AI replacing the people who built it this is the speech they didn't write. This one is yours.
// the speech so far
"The world is round such that the shortest and farthest distances start and begin with you."
Dino Castillo
Hard Knocks
"Do not be afraid to make mistakes. As experience and more importantly mistakes are the best way to learn. This applies to work, hobbies, or any thing you are passionate about."
John Francis De Leon
Mapua Institute of Technology
"Build things that make people more human, not less. That's the only future worth coding."
Priya N.
IIT Delhi
"My grandfather couldn't read. Today I have a master's degree. Three generations, one impossible dream."
Lucas F.
Universidade de São Paulo
"Thank you to my mother, who cleaned offices at night so I could sit in lecture halls by day. This degree is yours."
Diego R.
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
"The world is round such that the shortest and farthest distances start and begin with you."
Dino Castillo
Hard Knocks
"Do not be afraid to make mistakes. As experience and more importantly mistakes are the best way to learn. This applies to work, hobbies, or any thing you are passionate about."
John Francis De Leon
Mapua Institute of Technology
"Build things that make people more human, not less. That's the only future worth coding."
Priya N.
IIT Delhi
"My grandfather couldn't read. Today I have a master's degree. Three generations, one impossible dream."
Lucas F.
Universidade de São Paulo
"Thank you to my mother, who cleaned offices at night so I could sit in lecture halls by day. This degree is yours."
Diego R.
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
"Don't measure your worth in productivity. You are not a model to be benchmarked."
Hana K.
University of Tokyo
"I'm angry. We inherited a world on fire and they handed us a diploma and a hashtag. We deserve more than optimism."
Sophie M.
University of Manchester
"To every graduate who almost quit: you are the proof that almost is not the same as did."
Kofi A.
University of Ghana
"We were taught to think, not to compete with machines. Don't let anyone convince you your mind is obsolete."
Amara O.
University of Nairobi
"They keep telling us AI will take our jobs. Maybe. But it will never take our reasons for doing them."
Wei L.
National University of Singapore
"Don't measure your worth in productivity. You are not a model to be benchmarked."
Hana K.
University of Tokyo
"I'm angry. We inherited a world on fire and they handed us a diploma and a hashtag. We deserve more than optimism."
Sophie M.
University of Manchester
"To every graduate who almost quit: you are the proof that almost is not the same as did."
Kofi A.
University of Ghana
"We were taught to think, not to compete with machines. Don't let anyone convince you your mind is obsolete."
Amara O.
University of Nairobi
"They keep telling us AI will take our jobs. Maybe. But it will never take our reasons for doing them."
Wei L.
National University of Singapore
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