Always take a wet weather coat.

Ladies and gentleman of the class of 2013.
Always take a wet weather coat.
If I could offer you only one tip for the summer, keeping a wet weather coat handy would be it. The long term benefits of having a wet weather coat during a British Summer are countless, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience...
I will dispense this advice now.

You cannot make someone love you. All you can do is try to make yourself someone who can be loved. The rest is up to them.
No matter how much you care about people, some people just don’t care as much back.
It takes years to build up trust, and only seconds to destroy it.

No matter how good a friend is, at some point they’re going to really hurt you, mostly unintentionally and you must forgive them for that.
It’s not what you have in your life but who you have in your life that really counts.

Never ruin an apology with an excuse. As the excuse make the apology null and void.
You can get by on being charming for about fifteen minutes. After that, you’d better know something worth knowing.
Don't compare yourself to other people. You are unique and precious just as you are.

It's possible to do something in an instant that will live with you and cause you grief for the rest of your life.
It takes a very long time to become the person you want to be.
Always leave the ones you love with loving words. It may be the last time you see them.
You can keep going long after you think you can’t. You are way stronger than you imagine you are.

It's only ourselves who are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.
You either control your attitude or it controls you.
Regardless of how hot and steamy a relationship is at first, the passion will fade and there had better be something else to take its place.

Real heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences for themselves.
Money is a rubbish way of keeping track of how you are doing.

With a best friend you can do absolutely anything or nothing at all and still have the best time ever.
Sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you’re down will be the ones that actually help you get back up again.
Sometimes when we're angry we have the right to be angry, but that doesn’t make it ok to be cruel.

Just because someone doesn’t love you the way you want them to, it doesn’t mean they don’t love you with all they have to give.
Maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you’ve had and what you’ve learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you’ve celebrated.

Never tell a child their dreams are unlikely or silly. Few things in life are more humiliating, than being told your dreams are stupid, and what a tragedy it would be if they actually believed it.
Your family won’t always be there for you, they will at times let you down, but people you aren’t related to can take care of you and love you and teach you to trust people again. Families aren’t just biological.

It isn’t always enough to be forgiven by others. Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.
No matter how bad your heart is broken the world doesn’t stop for your grief.

Our background and circumstances may influence who we are, but only we are responsible for who we become.
Just because two people argue, it doesn’t mean they don’t love each other. And just because they don’t argue, it doesn’t mean they do.

You shouldn’t always be so eager to find out a secret. It could change the way you see your life forever.
Two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.
No matter how much you try to protect your children, they will eventually get hurt and you will hurt in the process.

Even when you think you have no more to give, when a friend cries out to you, you will find the strength to help.
Certificates on the wall do not make you a decent human being.
People you we care about most in life are normally the ones taken from us too soon.

It’s hard to determine where to draw the line between being nice and not hurting people’s feelings, and standing up for what you believe.
Most people will forget what you said, and people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

And finally, it's a lot easier to give advice to people than it is to act upon it for yourself, but trust me on the wet weather coat.