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A Student for Life: Why I Never Really Graduated
Recently, I listened to Sean Evans’ commencement speech at the University of Illinois, and it echoed something I’ve always felt as an artist in the way I approach my creative work and life.
5/27/20262 min read
Life, much like a plate of increasingly spicy hot wings, has a way of humbling you.
One minute you think you know exactly what you are doing, and the next you are sitting in a moment that reminds you how much there still is to learn.
Recently, while listening to a commencement speech by Sean Evans, the host of Hot Ones, I started thinking about graduation differently. There is something fascinating about a show where celebrities are interviewed while eating wings that get progressively spicier, but what stood out to me in his speech wasn’t just the humor or the concept—it was the reminder that curiosity and creativity often lead us into the most unexpected and meaningful paths.
The older I get, the less I see graduation as an ending and more as an invitation to stay curious. Because maybe the real goal is not to stop learning. Maybe it is to never really graduate.
To the class of 2026—congratulations. You’ve reached a major milestone filled with late nights, early mornings, challenges, growth, and moments that likely stretched you in ways you didn’t expect. But what I’ve come to realize is that some of the most important learning doesn’t happen before graduation—it happens after it.
Instead, what I’ve experienced is something much more interesting: life keeps teaching you. Through things that go well, and things that don’t. Through unexpected opportunities, creative risks, mistakes, pivots, and moments where you try something new without any idea how it will turn out. As an artist, designer, author, and creative entrepreneur, my path has rarely been straight—which is ironic, because I definitely know how to draw a straight line. But I’ve always leaned into learning something different, and every chapter has added something I didn’t know I needed.
Something Sean Evans shared in his speech really stuck with me: the idea of taking life one wing at a time. And honestly, creativity feels a lot like that too. We often think we need a perfect plan before we begin—the full roadmap, the guaranteed outcome, the certainty that it will all work. But most meaningful things aren’t built that way.
That idea is part of what inspired Stars Imagination: A Journey of Art & Stories, a creative experience designed to encourage storytelling, hands-on making, and step-by-step exploration. It is meant for those summer days when inspiration needs a little spark, or when curiosity just wants somewhere to go.
So to the class of 2026—and honestly to all of us—I hope we stay curious. I hope we keep learning, keep experimenting, and keep growing in ways we didn’t expect. And maybe most importantly, I hope we never fully graduate from becoming who we are still in the process of becoming.
"One wing at a time." - Sean Evans
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