Here's that commencement address I won't be giving this year: Column

Spike Lee (Johns Hopkins University), Matt Damon (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and Hoda Kotb (Tulane University) are all set to go. Even "Flo" — you know her from the Progressive Insurance commercials — was asked to give last year's commencement address at Binghamton University. So you'd think, with 3.3 million students about to move on from high school, and another 3.7 million getting degrees from hundreds of colleges and universities, that there might have been a spot for me. A small-town gym or tiny auditorium, I'm not proud and would go anywhere. Had Trump University reached out, I'd have gotten on a plane.

Hoping for the break that never came, I started keeping notes. No fluff, I told myself. These kids are about to take early important steps on a most unsettled journey. Many are in debt or will be in four years. Jobs are still hard to come by. Wages are flat, benefits in short supply. So I told myself that I wouldn't wax poetic. No "reach for the stars," "follow your bliss," "dare to think different."  Not even "it's important to get a good night's sleep." I'd leave all that to Arianna Huffington who, by the way, is speaking at Colby College.

My focus, I resolved, would be squarely on work: what to expect, and what not to expect from the eight or more hours a day you'll be working between now and age 75 — whether that job is in a warehouse or at corporate headquarters. I've got decades of war stories that will apply. I've worked for bosses who were invaluable mentors and others with the depth, temperament and empathy of an empty suit. I've cashed paychecks from companies that cared deeply about the emotional well-being of their workforce and others that fixated only on whether the fat cats were fed. I've worked in offices that buzzed with the sound of happy teamwork and some that serve as a home away from home for the living dead.

Given that there was much to cover, how could I boil it all down?

In the interest of time and in deference to attention spans, I decided that I'd jam my learnings into a handful of three simple points to remember, which I've tried to drill into my own two kids.  The three takeaways would go something like this:

 1. Brace yourself — you'll have a lot to complain about.

Stingy pay and paltry benefits are, unfortunately, only the beginning. There's a pretty good chance that your employer's values may suck. Honesty? Fairness? C'mon man! Or, there may be insufficient opportunity for you to use your special skills and judgment. Or, you may not be granted much flexibility in how, where or when you fulfill your responsibilities. Life?What life? When you voice these concerns, some will accuse you of being a typical, whiny grad who's been coddled into a false sense of entitlement. And some of you actually are. But not most of you. A 2014 study found that Millennials and middle-agers want pretty much the same things out of a job: a larger paycheck and better benefits, to be sure, but also a strong sense of pride in their employer's values and principles.

2. Console yourself with the fact that as bad as things seem, they could always be worse.

Don't believe everything your older siblings are complaining about. It's not altogether a jungle out there. According to a 2015 Conference Board survey, reported job satisfaction, despite lagging wage increases, is inching up, much of the improvement rooted in "increased job security and greater satisfaction in other career development areas." In fact, job-satisfaction scores have been up for a few years in a row now that the financial crisis is behind us. By the way, as for the Great Recession, it was — as you may have heard on the news — a "once-in-a-lifetime" calamity. So congratulations, class of '16 — you've dodged a bullet.

3. Finally,and I'll leave you with this: Don't ever assume that a job — even a job that you love and that you're unusually good at — will provide you with a 100% daily dose of meaning and purpose.

If there's one thing I learned after spending several years writing about what makes for a meaningful life, it's that what you do for a living, and how well you do it, are very important. A job, blue-collar or white, can instill self-pride and invite the respect of others. But work isn't everything. Work is only part of the answer. The rest will depend on certain connections to be made when the workday is over:

POLICING THE USA: A look at race, justice, media

The quality of the connection you make with those you love.

The depth of your connection to a cause you care about.

And the connection you feel to those who will eventually take your place in the warehouse, or the corporate office, and ultimately your place on planet Earth.

Your real job, in other words, is to leave things better off than than on the day you started out. Otherwise, what? Otherwise, you'll have merely punched a lousy clock — your own.

Thank you and happy trails on this, the first day of the rest of your life.

Lee Eisenberg is the former editor-in-chief of Esquire. His latest book is The Point Is: Birth, Death, and Everything in Between. Follow him on Twitter @Lee_Eisenberg

In addition to its own editorials, Paste BN publishes diverse opinions from outside writers, including our Board of Contributors. To read more columns, go to the Opinion front page and follow us on Twitter @USATOpinion.