A Commencement Speech on Life for Graduates, and All of Us
The Dividend Cafe
The Dividend Cafe - The Bahnsen Group
4.9 • 572 Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2026
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/4g30PWo
This special episode of The Dividend Cafe features David Bahnsen’s 2026 commencement address at Pacifica Christian High School of Orange County, introduced by his daughter and graduate Sadie. As a co-founder and trustee of the school, Bahnsen shares faith-informed life advice centered on the school’s emphasis on thinking well and living well, urging graduates to reject perpetual negativity, victimhood, and fatalism about the economy, AI, or personal trauma. He argues that people are not defined or owned by hardships and can choose optimism, responsibility, and joy, including avoiding “doom scrolling” and building healthy habits and relationships. He challenges parents and adults not to spread cynicism and calls graduates to be “builders” who pursue hope, peace, and purpose in Christ.
00:00 Welcome and Special Episode
01:05 Why This Commencement Speech
02:32 Faith Theme and Setup
03:00 Sadie Introduces Her Dad
05:17 Opening Remarks and Pacifica Vision
07:10 High School Nostalgia and Culture
09:03 Think Well and Live Well
10:46 Reject Victimhood and Negativity
12:14 Today Is the Best Day
14:12 Healing Beyond Trauma
16:08 Choose Optimism and Agency
18:30 Be Builders Not Destroyers
19:02 Charge to the Graduates
20:27 Love and Final Blessing
21:44 Disclosures and Disclaimer
Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Dividend Cafe, weekly market commentary focused on dividends in your portfolio |
| 0:07.0 | and dividends in your understanding of economic life. |
| 0:14.0 | Well, hello and welcome to this week's very special and very different dividend cafe. |
| 0:19.0 | I am sitting out in my desert house right now in Southern |
| 0:22.8 | California and decided this week that I had a golden opportunity to do something different |
| 0:28.8 | in Dividing Cafe. I have been working for quite some time, like several months, on a speech |
| 0:36.5 | that I gave on Tuesday night, the commencement |
| 0:39.3 | addressed at the graduation ceremony of Pacifica Christian High School of Orange County. |
| 0:44.3 | I am one of the co-founders of the school and still to this day serve as a very, very active |
| 0:50.3 | trustee. And also this year had the privilege of my daughter, my middle child, Sadie, |
| 0:57.2 | graduating from the school. And so it was a real honor to be asked to give the commencement. |
| 1:05.0 | Look, I have done two different divin cafes in early June over the last several years with |
| 1:10.5 | financial advice and |
| 1:11.8 | practical advice for young graduates, high school, college graduates, this being graduation season |
| 1:18.2 | and all. My commencement address is not about investing. It's not really even about financial |
| 1:24.2 | discipline per se. It's very purposely about life advice. And I understand a lot of |
| 1:31.0 | Dividend Cafe listeners are here for commentary on the economy and investing in markets. |
| 1:36.3 | But I ask you to bear with me for this one week for a little exception to that because I felt |
| 1:42.7 | that it would be appropriate to put into Dividend Cafe the |
| 1:46.5 | 10, 12 minute video, whatever it is from my speech with life advice, not just for the graduates |
| 1:54.1 | in the room, but for everyone in the room. And I hope that the advice will be helpful for all |
| 1:58.9 | of you, our Dividend Cafe subscribers. |
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