An Especially Good Messy Day

Hello everybody. I am so happy to be here. Congratulations to you all. Harvard Graduate School of Education. This is so amazing. 

This is such a special day. I am truly thankful to be alive, to be here with you today. There have definitely been times in my life where I didn't think I would still be alive. I didn't want to be in the world. Today is definitely a reason to stay. Today is definitely a day where I'm so glad to be in your presence.

You're all so wonderful. You look beautiful. I don't have any kids, but I imagine this is what being a parent must feel like. Every single one of you — seeing all your beautiful clothes. I really am just so, so happy to be here. 

I love libraries. I have a library card tattooed on me. I'm the library's biggest fan in the entire world. You mentioned 800 million visits to libraries. I'm probably responsible for at least 100 million of those visits to libraries. I'm very confident. 

I will try to keep it as short as I possibly can. I know that we're all out here baking and we're doing the best we can. I'm sweating. Yesterday, library kid told me, "Look, look everyone, that librarian is sweaty. He looks so shiny." Thank you, unhinged library kid. I appreciate it. 

I have had so much fun on this trip. I don't get to come to Boston too often. Last night was to get a visit of GBH and I got to meet Arthur Reed. That was an amazing dream come true for PBS kid like myself, but this has also been a special trip just to be celebrating all of your special days.

You work so hard, you've come so far. I know there's so often where we don't think that we belong, but you've proven how much you belong, how worthy you are about all these wonderful things. 

I love educators. I'm the son of a teacher. I see my therapist and psychiatrist way too often more than anyone should. I am proudly team live, laugh, Lexapro. You’ll be members of these teams very, very soon as you go into your careers. 

But as much as this is so much fun, as much as this is also just a special honor, I like to talk about my library card tattoo. I have at least 14 library cards in my wallet right now and two of the very special ones. … I apologize to the captioned people because I'm totally going off cuff right now. … It's one of my most favorite library cards. I have my grandmother's library card. She passed away at the age of 90 and she's a person from Arkansas who didn't get to have a library card when she was a little girl. She didn't get to go to libraries. She didn't get to learn how to read, but she eventually did. She moved to California and she got a library card and I have her library card that shows how far she came. It's her legacy. It's keeping her with me all the time. 

I want you guys to remember your legacy. It's not just starting to happen the day you were born and this is just the next step. The next journey in your legacy. I hope you're as proud of yourselves as I'm proud of you.

The other library card that I want to talk about is just so special. I was in Connecticut yesterday and I got to meet the … Yes, go Connecticut! Yesterday I got to meet the mother and brother of Ana Grace Marquez-Greene. One of the 26 lives stolen from Sandy Hook Elementary School. It was so special, so humbling to meet her mother and brother and just to see how much joy they have. Yes, they're grieving. They're experiencing so many emotions, but this level of joy that I've experienced today around every single one of you is how much joy they're living with. 

They remember Ana-Grace all the time and I'm just so happy that Ana Grace's mom gave me Ana Grace's library card that she has kept all these years and she asked me to be the keeper of Ana Grace's library card. It was just so special. I love being able to be the keeper of that kind of a library card. 

I just would hope that you all remember that you're the keeper of your own stories. You're writing your stories each and every day, especially as you delve into education, as you reach so many library kids, so many people, you have so many opportunities to change lives, to impact lives. You are difference makers, you're change makers and that starts right now in this very moment. I'm so, so proud of you. 

And now my actual remarks. My name is Mychal Threets. I'm a librarian. Hello, butterflies in the sky. 

This librarian is so very proud to be here with you today. Celebrating education, celebrating you.

There is so much going on in a messy world, but today is an especially good messy day. We are blessed to share in your hard work, to share in your graduation. You did it. I'm so happy for you. I'm so proud of you. 

You are the helpers my hero, Mr. Rogers, has always spoken of. You are going to be in classroom. You're going to be all over the world. You are going to be impacting lives and I hope you never forget that. 

It's okay to not know your next steps. It's okay to not know things. I say I don't know all the time. I believe more grownups should. That's the beauty of libraries, of education. We don't know things, but we have the resources to find the answers, especially together. 

Today is the best day to not know things. Today is the best day to just be, to exist, to revel in the joy of your hard work, to rejoice because you are here, because you are actively working to be an active participant in making the world less terrible and, in the words of my friend Blair Imani, Please don't forget your impact. Please don't forget how much your existence matters. You've accomplished something incredible. No one can ever take this away from you. On your hardest day, please, please, please remember: I belong. I am worthy. Because that's the truth. 

You are educators. You deserve everything good. We are thankful for you. We are proud of you. We love you. You are changing the world for the better. You are my heroes. You're going to make a difference in so many lives. It starts today. You've made a difference. 

It's okay to not know things. You are making an impact. You belong. You are worthy. Thank you for being helpers. You did it. Congratulations. 

I know we want to play the video and get to our conversation, but just one of my favorite library stories before we do, just so you guys know the unhinged work that you're going into. 

I love little people. They're very funny. They are walking intrusive thoughts, but they are some of the most unhinged people I've ever met in the entire world. This comes from a person who named their cats Kissing Cat Barlow and Machine Gun Kitty. 

I've been a librarian library worker for going on 13 years and I used to visit sites all the time and do story time. I remember one of the Head Start sites I visited on a weekly basis and I really got to know them. I got to the site one day, one of the kids runs up to me and they're like, "Mr. Mychal, I lost my tooth." And I could see this child is actively bleeding from their mouth. And they're like, "Mr. Mychal, I'm going to see you tonight." Which is something that an educator never wants to hear from a child. 

I'm a curious person … educators, library people, we like gossip, we like the tea, too much. And I shouldn't have said anything, but I just go, "I don't want to ask, but I have to. Why do you think you're going to see me tonight?" And this library kid goes, "Because you're the tooth fairy." And I know I'm not the tooth fairy. And this guy just goes, "Yeah, you're the tooth fairy." And by this time the teacher has arrived, they're cracking up and I just go, "Why do you think I'm the tooth fairy?" They say, "Because you have pretty poofy princess air!” Because that’s apparently one of the main qualifications of being the tooth fairy. And I just go, "Funny, I'm not the tooth fairy. I'm so sorry. You're not going to see me tonight." And they just look so dejected and they look down, then they just look up and they go, "That's something the tooth fairy would say." 

And that is life you're all in store for as educators. I hope you're ready, I know you're ready, and I can't wait to see you in libraries in the world of education.