Jeb Bush, appearing in a crucial early state for the 2016 GOP presidential primaries, gave the commencement address at the University of South Carolina on Monday, offered pablum to the masses in the form of three pieces of advice:
- Dream big.
- Don’t be afraid of change.
- Find joy everywhere you can.
Having offended no one, Bush waxed serious for a nanosecond, warning the students that after they graduate, “every day is an exam, every day you will get graded.”
When speaking of “dreaming big,” Bush expanded on the subject. He told the students to “model their lives on their parents.” But that advice might not have appealed to headstrong youth, so he followed with, “You don’t need to follow the pattern, you can do what you want to do. In fact, life is a lot better if you find your own reasons to do your own things.”
On the subject of “change,” Bush encouraged the graduates to courageously embrace change and experimentation. They should “even fail because it’s part of life, it will definitely be part of yours.” Of course, Bush has not exactly been willing to challenge the powers that be himself; his endorsement of the Senate’s immigration reform bill and Common Core educational standards testify to that.
As for “finding joy,” Bush elaborated:
No matter how many challenges you face, no matter how old you get, remember to have fun and laugh … Life isn’t always about the happy moments, everyone faces adversity eventually. But those things we can’t control, we can control how we react. If you are able to find joy in life wherever you can I can promise you this joy will find you.
Bush has dropped serious hints that he will run in 2016; he admitted on Sunday that he will release 250,000 emails from his tenure as Florida’s governor and will decide “in short order” whether he will run.