Admiral William H. Mcraven's Arguement Speech

At University of Texas at Austin, Admiral William H. McRaven delivered his commencement speech to the class of 2014 in which he discloses the secrets of not only how to succeed in life, but also to make the world a better place. An alumni of the college himself, he begins by reminiscing his own graduation and empathizes with the soon-to-be graduates, figuratively coming down from his high military position to demonstrate that even he, a high ranked official, a revered American hero, is just like them. He fondly and comically remembers he had partied the night before and had a throbbing headache the day of graduation, and that he had a serious girlfriend at the time that later became his wife. The relatability of his anecdote allows him to
He brings up that when the instructors hosted periodic, detailed uniform inspections, no matter how immaculate the uniform was, they would always be able to find something wrong with it. The soldiers would have to face an over-the-top punishment, forced to become a “sugar cookie,” which is essentially dressing in uniform and getting wet in the cold, salty ocean and then rolling themselves in sand getting it all over their uniform, dirtying it and forcing them to clean a much more difficult task. The admiral says that these losses have to be accepted no matter the level of injustice it possesses. Continuing with the theme of punishment and adapting to harsh situations, the navy officer continues by expressing the physical demand that the Navy SEAL training required. He talks about the pressure to constantly pass the requirement set forth by the instructors out of fear of the consequences: even more, additional physical activity added fatigue and increased the difficult conditions. The “circus” was an extra two hours of calisthenics. Due to the extra fatigue, people on the circus would remain on the circus until they improved and were able to essentially graduate from it. Everybody had to be in the circus at one point and after experiencing the failure, they could develop from it. McRaven warns to not be afraid of the circuses because everyone has to experience one at some point in their life and that is how people