See Jane graduate

There’s always something beautifully sad, sadly beautiful about this time of year. It’s graduation time. Granted, my graduations (high school, college, school of hard knocks) were all ages ago. But the inescapable feeling of a chapter closing, pages turning and unlimited possibilities always fill the air this time of year. I remember my graduations as a heady mix of pride, excitement, anxiousness and uncertainty. It’s the unknown – leaving the familiar and stepping into the exhilarating newness. It’s sometimes best expressed in a beautifully rendered commencement speech. And, no, not just that one about the sunscreen.

While it’s still early in the 2012 commencement season, I dare say our good friend Jane Lynch has already set a high bar for the experience. Over the weekend she addressed Smith College. And, as the self-professed “solid C student” said, her speech, “Today is all about you. But just a little bit about me.” Delightfully wry, just the right amount of sentimental and charming as ever, Jane managed to get reproductive rights, “Glee” and porno all into one speech. It’s well worth the 22 minutes and 36 seconds. And if that won’t convince you, this is Smith College after all. So you can always just scan the graduating class and test your gaydar. So on the eve of the big McKinley High graduation finale, I can’t think of a better person to send us off with pomp and circumstance. Take it away, Jane.

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