Described as the commencement speech she would give if ever asked to deliver one, this charming, whimsical music video found its origins in a 1997 Chicago Tribune column by Mary Schmich. Two years later, Australian film director Baz Luhrmann (who would go on to direct the Academy Award-winning Moulin Rouge) set Schmich's musings, virtually word for word, to music. Rumored--falsely--to have been an MIT commencement address given by the author Kurt Vonnegut, the Luhrmann production reached #1 in the UK and Ireland, and became a cult hit in the United States.
View the complete lyrics of "Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen)."
If you were to write a commencement address, what would you say? Leave a comment on this video with your ideas.
Check out these essays from The Global Youth Fund's "This I Believe" international essay project.