It is commencement season, with universities and colleges in Houston and Texas celebrating the accomplishments of college students earning everything form associates degrees to doctorates. Commencement season also means commencement speakers, who are designated to impart words of wisdom to graduating classes as they step into the reality of no longer being a student.
So, it’s the perfect time to look back at Matthew McConaughey’s iconic University of Houston commencement speech from 2015.
2015 was peak McConaughey, and the apex point for the McConassiance. The Texas-born actor, fresh off winning the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Dallas Buyers Club and his lead role in the transformative HBO drama True Detective, could literally do no wrong. At the peak of his powers, McConaughey decided to come to Houston and impart his decades of knowledge and experience to the graduating class at the University of Houston.
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The speech has been immortalized as a motivational force on YouTube, personally published by McConaughey on Medium, and by Time magazine on its website as advice for 2015 graduates. The speech is a real precursor to McConaughey’s books of stories and advice, like 2025’s POEMS & PRAYERS.
After being introduced before his speech, the bearded Interstellar star took off his blazer, rolled up his sleeves, pulled out a stool rather than orating from the standard podium most speakers would use, indicating this chat would be a little more personal. What followed was 46 minutes of life advice delivered in a way only McConaughey could.
Let’s examine five pieces of essential life advice McConaughey shared with the graduating cougars.
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Give your obstacles credit
Academy Award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey gives University Of Houston Commencement Address at TDECU Stadium on May 15, 2015 in Houston, Texas.
Bob Levey/Getty Images
In a real, “my haters are my motivators” way, giving credit to the things that make life hard is essential advice from McConaughey. Fear of rejection, fear of uncertainty, whatever presents itself as an obstacle for your progression as a human being, you should acknowledge it, recognize what it does to you, so you can move past it.
“Instead of denying these fears, declare them, say them out loud, admit them, give them the credit they deserve,” McConaughey explained. “Don’t get all macho and act like they’re no big deal, and don’t get paralyzed by denying they exist and therefore abandoning your need to overcome them.”
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DON’T LEAVE CRUMBS
Academy Award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey gives University Of Houston Commencement Address at TDECU Stadium on May 15, 2015 in Houston, Texas.
Bob Levey/Getty Images
McConaughey isn’t talking about crumbs we leave on our plates, but the crumbs we leave in the lives that come back to haunt us. The decisions we make that create negative events that compound issues, preventing an individual from crafting a positive future
“You slept around on your spouse, and you just found out that tomorrow, she and the lady you’re having an affair with, are going to be at the same PTA meeting … s–t again,” McConaughey described to the graduates. “These are crumbs! They come in the form of regret, guilt, and remorse—you leave ’em today, they will cause you more stress tomorrow.”
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He then urges us to create our own crumbs, positive ones that pay dividends down the line, investing in ourselves with acts that result in positive compound interest. Acts like prepping the coffee maker before you go to sleep or choosing not to sleep with a married person so you don’t feel guilty or potentially ruin someone’s life. Again, positive crumbs.
From Can To Want
Academy Award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey gives University Of Houston Commencement Address at TDECU Stadium on May 15, 2015 in Houston, Texas.
Bob Levey/Getty Images
A good piece of life advice and one of the best anecdotes in the speech describes McConaughey getting his first big check for a movie, buying a home that came with a housekeeper who cooked and pressed his jeans for him. It was something he never thought would be possible. Turns out, after a friend of his told him she hated lines pressed into jeans, he realized he never liked that either, but only liked it because it was a result of his success.
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Just because you can have something, you need to have the agency to choose it willingly.
“Unbelievable” is the stupidest word in the dictionary
McConaughey urges the grads to recognize that acts of greatness are never unbelievable. As a species, we shouldn’t be surprised by our accomplishments.
“Nothing we homosapien earthlings do is unbelievable—one thing you can depend on people being … is people, McConaughey said. “So we shouldn’t be surprised, we are the trickiest mammal walking the planet!! It ain’t the monkeys I’m worried about, it’s you and me.”
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The philosophical idea the actor proposes hinges on the worry that acknowledging humanity’s accomplishments can be spectacularly good, but also recognizing and urging the graduating class not to be naive to humanity’s capacity for evil.
A roof is a man-made thing
Academy Award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey gives University Of Houston Commencement Address at TDECU Stadium on May 15, 2015 in Houston, Texas.
Bob Levey/Getty Images
After retelling one of the most painful Houston sports collapses ever, when the Buffalo Bills came from behind and beat the Houston Oilers after trailing 28-3 at halftime, McConaughey explained that the limits we put on ourselves are entirely our invention
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Roofs are man-made. The ceiling we put on what we can do is entirely our own invention—an inspiring call to arms to believe in yourself.
“We shouldn’t create these restrictions on ourselves. A blue ribbon, a statue, a score, a great idea, the love of our life, a euphoric bliss. Who are we to think we don’t deserve or haven’t earned these gifts when we get them?” McConaughey imparted to the UH grads.
Sure, the advice is coming from the perspective of a man in the 1 percent of the luckiest guys on the planet, who has experienced a ridiculous amount of success and accumulated a ton of fame and money, but it can still resonate (even when some of it is just funny to think about). It’s the kind of unabashed over-the-top advice you would expect grads would need at a truly emotional endpoint of a long educational journey.
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The upcoming commencement speeches may not offer the same McConaugh-isms we got in 2015, but at least we can always relive them on YouTube.