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Liz Kay
Welcome to the Providence College podcast. I'm Liz Kay as 2022 begins. Say goodbye to 2021 with a gentle reminder. Gratitude is a scientifically proven means to help us through the roughest times in our lives. Dr. Laurie Santos, a Yale psychology professor and host of the podcast Happiness Lab, offered this advice during her commencement address to the Class

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Liz Kay
of 2021. If you missed the ceremony and make the send out.

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Laurie Santos
Hello and good morning, Friar family father Sicard, members of the faculty and staff honored guests, family and friends. And last but definitely not least class of 2020 11. Thank you so much for having me here today. I. I know you're still awake.

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Laurie Santos
Come on, come on. I'm glad for the applause because I can't tell you what an honor it is to be able to speak here at Providence College. As you heard, I'm a girl from New Bedford, New Bedford in the house, forever in the house.

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Laurie Santos
I know my homies are here. And I can't tell you what it means for a teenager from New Bedford, who spent nine years in Catholic school to come to Providence College and speak to you today. Back when I was growing up in New Bedford in the nineties, Providence College was like the coolest, most cosmopolitan hall of knowledge

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Laurie Santos
I could possibly imagine. Back then, in New Bedford, I would look out at the signs for 195, and I would just be like Providence damn basketball there in a mall. This is what 15 year old me would be dying to tell you right now.

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Laurie Santos
And I'm just like, so excited to be able to talk to you today. You're making my pre-teen fantasies come true right now, and I might try to go to Providence Place more after this, but you're not going to say.

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Laurie Santos
But beyond just being a surreal experience for teenage me, it's an honor to speak to you all in particular. Your class has distinguished itself in so many ways, it's completely humbling. I'm looking at amazing D1 athletes, fantastic writers, selfless public servants, fantastic artists, talented musicians, creative engineers, hardworking laboratory scientists and some killer intramural soccer spike ball players

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Laurie Santos
. Some of you have even gotten that coveted white blazer from the Friars Club. I'm seeing you all very impressed here, just like, Wow. But I wanted to take you all the time to kind of congratulate you on all these accomplishments, big and small that you've had in the last four years in general.

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Laurie Santos
But it's particularly impressive that you've managed to achieve these accomplishments during one of the most challenging times our country and our world has ever seen. And you know, we've talked about this year and Father's Day card came up.

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Laurie Santos
I was like, what a year it's been? But I think it's worth acknowledging that you all did not sign up for this. Right? Like when you logged into the admissions that is portal and you found out that you got into Providence College, I bet they didn't add in for someone like fine print somewhere.

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Laurie Santos
Oh, by the way, don't bother grabbing those March Madness tickets your junior year because this is me a horrible global pandemic. So probably like, don't make any plans, you know, they probably didn't say, Hey, you need to clear your social calendar for, oh, most of the second half of 2020, because there's not gonna be any dances at

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Laurie Santos
Petersen's. It's not going to be any bingo at MacPhail's. Not much of a senior ing week, no late night madness in October. All that stuff gone like nobody told you that. It was also probably no mention of N95 mask or stay at home orders or COVID 19 protocols.

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Laurie Santos
If I traveled back to the day that you first stepped foot on campus and I quizzed you and I said, What is Zoom? You might say that it was something that you did with your camera or like in a super fast car or something, right?

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Laurie Santos
Like, none of you knew what you were going to be facing in the last 15 months. We just absolutely couldn't have possibly imagined. But in spite of all of that, you are still sitting here proudly graduates now the first post-pandemic class of Providence College to physically gather here for their commencement address.

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Laurie Santos
You're ready to head off into this new post-pandemic world that we've all found ourselves in, and that is an absolutely incredible accomplishment. You all rock and you should be all proud of yourselves. one more round of applause. But full disclosure, the current time that we find ourselves in is also a tricky time to be giving a commencement

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Laurie Santos
address because members of the class of 2021, the usual role of the commencement speaker is to give you some long winded, deep and wise advice that impart some like important things that I want to tell you. And it very sure of yourself way about your future.

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Laurie Santos
But we're celebrating all of your achievements at a time when the future seems more uncertain than ever. Like, even for the old folks like me, you know, we usually act like we know what's going on. But even though I'm a scientist and a happiness expert, this is still my first global pandemic rodeo.

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Laurie Santos
Like I like you like. Most of the people on the planet have no idea what the next few months or even next few years hold. And so when I began thinking about what tips I can share with you to get through what is more than ever an uncertain future, I decided to fall back on some advice that

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Laurie Santos
I knew I could be sure of. I know that this is a strategy that works because it's been one that's been scientifically proven to make you physically healthier and happier. It's got the stamp of science. So what's that strategy where it's one that we're going to try out right now?

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Laurie Santos
It is that I want you to take a moment to experience a little bit of gratitude. The simple act of noticing what you're thankful for now. Gratitude sounds really cheesy. I saw some of you make the face when I was like, What's the strategy and your gratitude?

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Laurie Santos
Like, gratitude feels pretty old school. It feels really countercultural. In 2021, we feel like we're kind of doing the thing where we like, complain a lot and kvetch a lot and share that with our friends on all social media platforms, right?

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Laurie Santos
Like that is a fun thing. These days, we're more likely to count our hassles than our blessings these days. If you look at the ratio of like wholesome teams to like super mean and kind of like annoying memes like the ratio isn't right there.

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Laurie Santos
Like these days, we're more likely to cancel than to appreciate. And on a lot of ways, I'm going to be honest that urge to complain makes sense because things have been lousy. Like legitimately, there is a lot to kvetch about these days.

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Laurie Santos
I mean, it is fantastic that we have this wonderful weather and you all can kind of gather here together. This is amazing. But it's been a really rough year. It's worth acknowledging, you know, this is the kind of thing where you're all here together thinking that you're going to head off into a relatively scary, uncertain world, right

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Laurie Santos
? And that can be particularly tough. And don't even get me started on all the bigger, non-pandemic stuff anti-Black violence, structural racism, political polarization, climate change like these are legitimately awful, scary things, and they're all happening right now. But the scientific research shows that if your generation is going to have the bandwidth to improve all this annoying stuff

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Laurie Santos
because it is falling to you, if you're going to have that emotional bandwidth, then you're going to need some scientific backup and gratitude. The research shows can give you that science shows the grateful people aren't just happier, but they're healthier.

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Laurie Santos
They sleep better and they have stronger immune function. Gratitude can reduce depression and anxiety, but gratitude also makes you more productive. It turns out grateful people are more likely to save for retirement. There's evidence that they eat in a more healthy way.

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Laurie Santos
They're less likely to procrastinate, and they're more likely to do stuff that's hard in the moment that they know will benefit themselves in the future. Running on gratitude is kind of like running on Dunkin, but you don't have to beg your friends to get it for you from the Slovan center.

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Laurie Santos
And so let us try it. We're going to try it out. Scientific experiment right here in Providence College Graduation. When I had you experienced some gratitude. So humor me graduates. I want you to all close your eyes. Close your eyes right now, and I want you to take a moment to remember the day you found out you

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Laurie Santos
got in. Like what your parents said, what your friend said, how excited you were. If I was close enough to the parents in the back, I'd probably see some of them smiling because I probably remember they probably remember that day, too.

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Laurie Santos
Now I want you to take a moment to remember the first time you stepped on this campus for real. None of you came for some visit, but the first day of your freshman year, the day you were finally a college student.

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Laurie Santos
Take a moment to remember how that felt. Now, I want you to take a moment to experience gratitude for the long path you've had since that day. It was just for years, but I bet it feels like a lifetime.

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Laurie Santos
Take a moment to experience some gratitude for how different you are for how far you've come since that day. Now I want you to open your eyes a little bit more gratitude. Now I want you to take a moment to experience gratitude for something else, not just for the long path you've been on, but for all the

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Laurie Santos
people who've helped you along the way. Because none of you have made this journey on your own, and that means this accomplishment is something you share with a huge village. Soon you're going to go home and in the mail, you're going to get your diploma.

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Laurie Santos
And you can open it up really excitedly, and you're going to see your name like right near Providence College. Your name big in bold and it will just be your name. But what I want you to understand today is that there's lots of other names on there, too.

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Laurie Santos
My colleague at Yale, Steve Pitti, another head of college like me, once told me an analogy that stayed with me for many, many years, which is the idea that on every college diploma, there are lots and lots of other names.

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Laurie Santos
They're just they're an invisible ink. And so I want you to have some gratitude for the other names that are on there in invisible ink, because on your diploma in invisible ink are going to be the names of your mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, aunties and uncles and cousins, family, friends, grandparents, step parents on your diplomas

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Laurie Santos
in invisible ink will be the names of many, many generations of people who worked incredibly hard. So you could get here so that some of you could be the first members of your family to get here. Shout out to all my first gen students out there.

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Laurie Santos
On that diploma in Invisible Ink, are your high school teachers, your high school mentors and coaches on their diploma in invisible ink are all the people here at Providence College, your priests and professors, the Providence College athletic stuff on that diploma in invisible ink are all the staff who helped you, the dining hall workers at Ray and

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Laurie Santos
I'm told that Dot her name is going to be there in big ink. Big invisible ink right there. Providence College seniors, there are so many unknowns, thanked people who have been on this journey with you, and whether it's obvious or not, their names are going to be on that paper right beside yours in invisible ink.

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Laurie Santos
But the beauty of gratitude is that we can make what's invisible visible. And so I want you to do that now. I want you to stand up and let all of those invisible names on that diploma know that you are grateful.

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Laurie Santos
They're all back there and around, so stand up and give them some love. Now, as you keep standing, we're going to do one final bit of gratitude before we end. Your last act is to feel grateful for the thing that you're going to miss the most when you leave here.

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Laurie Santos
Not the basketball games, not even the Duncan. The thing that you're going to miss most is each other. So while you're standing up, I want you to take a moment to look around, look around at the fellow students who are sitting in your row or behind you or that friend who's in a totally different spot.

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Laurie Santos
Take a moment to feel the gratitude for the people who've really made up your Frier family, your teammates and suite mates your lifelong best friends. Will you be stepping away from today? Take a moment to experience just how grateful you are for the huge role that they have played in your life.

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Laurie Santos
And if you want to give them a shout out and some clapping, some love, I bet they would appreciate it too. All right, now, you can sit back down again. But as you do, I want you to take a quick moment to notice how you feel.

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Laurie Santos
Warmth in your chest, maybe I saw some happy tears there, especially when I was going through those invisible names. Some of you might have a genuine sense like you are connected to something bigger. The fact that there is a bunch of people in this world who have your back and that feels amazing.

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Laurie Santos
That feeling that you have is gratitude. As you've heard, it's a performance enhancing drug, and it also feels really amazing. But no matter where you go in life, this feeling is available to you. That good, happy, warm feeling you can get in your toughest times and your darkest moments.

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Laurie Santos
It can always be there when you need it. You just need to take time to turn it on and appreciate. Class of 2021, I hope you will take this scientific tip to heart. We need you to have as much emotional bandwidth as you can to fix all the annoying stuff.

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Laurie Santos
But today I want to speak for everyone else when I say that so many of your teachers and family members and friends are feeling that same warm emotion because they have so much gratitude for all of you and all that you've accomplished.

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Laurie Santos
Congratulations again on this achievement. Here's two deeply and intentionally appreciating all that life brings you from here on out.

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Liz Kay
We are grateful you chose to spend time with the Province College podcast. Episodes are available in all the usual places, as well as the college's YouTube channel and on your smart speaker with producer Chris Judge, I'm Liz Kay until next time.