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..., who said, "It is right to be content with what we have, but never with who we are." That’s sage advice. Be content with what you have, but never with who you are. Being content with what we have is easier said than understood, but being content means limiting our desires. It doesn’t matter whether we’re dealing with money, fame, power, prestige, or popularity. Those who have little want a lot. Those who have a lot want more. Those who have more want the most. And so on. We view what we want as relative to what we already have. Even if something we already have is good, we have difficulty being happy with it, because we want something better. The rich, famous, and well-liked are often no happier than the rest of the world because they desire to be even richer, even more famous, and even better liked. As the French author François de la Rochefoucauld said, "Nos désirs nous déçoivent toujours."—"Our desires always disappoint us." It is only by shedding those constant desires for more that we can be truly happy with what we have. Philosopher John Balguy put it best. "Contentment is a pearl of great price," he said, "and whoever procures it at the expense of ten thousand desires makes a wise and a happy purchase." Being content with what we have means realizing that we already have something good, whatever that might be. All of us here today have the friendships and memories we’ve made with each other, and the opportunities to do more of the same for the rest of our lives. Each of us individually has his own unique set of treasures in his life that he sometimes overlooks. To be content with what we have is to always appreciate and enjoy what we have and to never take it for granted by wishing we had something better. In the words of theologian Jeremy Taylor, "Measure your desires by your fortune, and not your fortune by your desires." Our goal should not be to have everything that we want, but rather to want everything that we have. But, recalling what Sir James Mackintosh said, our contentment with what we have should never translate into contentment with who we are. This is where we should raise the bar. This is where we should demand better. This is where we should never settle. Ourselves, who we are. Our talents, our integrity, and our compassion. Our character. That’s who we are. And we should never deem who we are as "good enough," no matter what the level of our talents, our integrity, or our compassion may be. In every aspect of who we are, we must always endeavor to improve. Yet there are no easy ways to improve who we are. No shortcuts, no automatic solutions. Who we are does not depend on where we are. Whether we graduate from McCallie or Red Bank, whether we go to Harvard or UTK, where we are does not change the content of our character or our abilities. The environment does not make the man. Nor do the men around him. Surrounding ourselves wit...