On June 1, 1997, a young reporter for the Chicago Tribune by the name of Mary Schmich wrote a short essay in her column. She called it : “Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young”.

It was meant to be a “Guide to Life for Graduates”… the author’s attempt to reach out to young people with her own words of wisdom. So it was positioned as a speech given to the graduating class of ’97. But within just 2 months since getting published, thanks to an email circulated by a college kid, what was now known as the “Suncreen Speech”, mistakenly came to be attributed as the work of the famed novelist Kurt Vonnegut !

Whatever be its origin, the “Suncreen Speech” offers some of the best advice I have ever come across in life…

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you’ll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t.

Read it. I am sure you won’t regret it.