From the moment she was invited to address Yale College graduates at this year's annual Class Day celebration, author Min Jin Lee '90 has thought a lot about the complexities they've been through and still face.
A global pandemic. Wars. Climate change. Disruptive technologies. Job scarcity. Social distrust.
"You are the so-called 'anxious generation' - a label that I have been considering," Lee, a celebrated novelist, told the Class of '26 on Old Campus today. "…You have been forced to be alert, and you deserve credit for being adaptive."
When young people ask her about confronting uncertainty and difficulty, Lee advises them to choose between the important and the urgent.
For her, it became easier to understand the difference between the two when she started to think about time. She leans on the wisdom of the ancient Greeks.
