you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country the future of America depends on you what you're learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future you'll need the knowledge and problem solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AES and to develop new Energy Technologies and protect our environment you'll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in hist
ory and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness crime and discrimination and make our nation more fair and more free you'll need the creativity and Ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy we need every single one of you to develop your talents and your skills and your intellect so you can help us old folks solve our most difficult problems if you don't do that if you quit on school you're not just quitting on yours
elf you're quitting on your country I know it's not always easy to do well in school I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your school work I get it I know what it's like but at the end of the day the circus ances of your life what you look like where you come from how much money you have what you've got going on at home none of that is an excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude in school that's no excuse for talking ba
ck to your teacher or cutting class or dropping out of school there is no excuse for not trying where you are right now doesn't have to determine where you'll end up no one's written your destiny for you because here in America you write your own destiny you make your own future that's what young people like you are doing every day all across America that's why today I'm calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education and do everything you can to meet them your goal can be someth
ing as simple as doing all your homework paying attention in class or spending some time each day reading a book maybe you'll decide get involved in an extracurricular activity or volunteer in your community maybe you'll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look because you believe like I do that all young people deserve a safe environment to study and learn maybe you'll decide to take better care of yourself so you could be more ready t
o learn but whatever you resolve to do I want you to commit to it I want you to really work work at it I know that sometimes you get that sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work that you're ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star chances are you're not going to be any of those things the truth is being successful is hard you won't love every subject that you study you won't click with every teacher that you have not every home
work assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right at this minute and you won't necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try that's okay some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who've had the most failures JK Rollins who wrote Harry Potter her first Harry Potter book was rejected Ed 12 times before it was finally published Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his c
areer but he once said I have failed over and over and over again in my life and that's why I succeed these people succeeded because they understood that you can't let your failures Define you you have to let your failures teach you you have to let them show you what to do differently the next time so if you get into trouble that doesn't mean you're a troubl maker it means you need to try harder to act right if you get a bad grade that doesn't mean you're stupid it just means you need to spend m
ore time studying no one's born being good at all things you become good at things through hard work you're not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport you don't hit every note the first time you sing a song you've got to practice the same principle applies to your schoolwork you might have to do a math problem a few times before you get a right you might have to read something a few times before you understand it you definitely have to do a few drafts of a paper before it's good e
nough to hand in don't be afraid to ask questions don't be afraid to ask for help when you need it I do that every day asking for help isn't a sign of weakness it's a sign of strength because it shows you have the courage to admit when you don't know something and that then allows you to learn something new so find an adult that you trust a parent a grandparent or a teacher a coach or a counselor and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals and even when you're struggling even when
you're discouraged and you feel like other people have given up on you don't ever give up on yourself because when you give up on yourself you give up on your country the story of America isn't about people who quit when things got tough it's about people who kept going who tried harder who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best it's the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago and went on to wage a revolution and they founded this nation young people stude
nts who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a depression and won a World War who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google and Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other so today I want to ask all of you what's your contribution going to be what problems are you going to solve what discoveries will you make what will a president who comes here in 20 or 50 or 100 years say about what all of
you did for this country you know your families your teachers and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions I'm working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books and the equipment and the computers you need to learn but you've got to do your part too so I expect all of you to get serious this year I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do I expect great things from each of you so don't let us down don't let
your family down or your country down most of all don't let yourself down make us all [Music] proud
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