It’s graduation season.  So many stories of proud parents celebrating their children finishing their elementary or high school journey.  So much possibility.

But as actor and comedian Carol Burnett said, “We don’t stop going to school when we graduate.”  We must be lifelong learners.  Curious question-askers.  Readers.  People who connect the dots from different angles to form creative solutions.

Theoretical physicist Albert Einstein said, “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”  He always wanted to know why.

Whether you are graduating yourself, watching your child or family member graduate or you graduated decades ago, success will come to those who never give up.

American president Calvin Coolidge said, “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not: unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

So keep asking questions.  Decide what you want out of life and then take action to make it happen.  Know your worth.  Don’t apologize for taking a different path.  And learn something new every day.  Graduation was the first day of a journey full of lessons.  Let those lessons inspire you to learn more.

As Irish poet William Butler Yeats said, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

Burn on.