To wrap up commencement week, I thought we could go old school. My old school: American University. This weekend, Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank will be giving the commencement speech at my Alma Mater. But 46 years ago, another man who served in congress from the great state of Massachusetts gave the speech as President of the United States. Ladies and Gentleman, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

If you've graduated or are graduating this weekend, congratulations and best of luck with your career from everyone at ThinkTalk. If you have not yet, hang in there, the time will pass quicker than today's roundup of The Links ...

Gradspot Features: An exclusive excerpt of Kanye West's commencement speech to The University of Phoenix Online. CAPS LOCK FTW!

College Humor Found: A commencement program that speaks to students, on the reals. Be prepared to hear a lot of the "classical song that's not that famous graduation song." Also, be prepared to hear advice from some old guy who was the "Secretary of Not Being Dane Cook" (jeez, they say that like "not being Dane Cook" is a bad thing. It is decidedly NOT a bad thing.)

Mashable Reminds Us: That the recession could be worse. And they have proof: photos of the Great Depression on Flickr. See that grads? It's not that bad out there. So congrats again on your triumph over the rigors of Academia (and beerpong!) and good luck with your career search starting ... Now.

I've read late author David Foster Wallace's Commencement Address to the Kenyon College class of '05 before. Shortly after his death the speech, as well as a number of other less-publicized works, made the rounds on the internet. He really nails down how you feel coming out of school about your education and your preparedness for the world ... and how you are absolutely wrong.  But somehow, as May rolled around and commencement addresses began, it slipped my mind to link to it.

Luckily, the gang over at Gradspot is on top of their game, and as a perusing my morning reading I came across this brilliant address once again. If you are just graduating, the odds that your speaker will top this speech are slim, and if you are still an undergrad, try to remember Wallace's words when you finally do graduate. I highly recommend you read this right away. Here is just a small excerpt (it's tough to choose just one ... I love this speech):

Update: It's come to my attention that the link to the speech doesn't always work. If you cannot access the archive here is an adapted version of the speech in the WSJ.

But most days, if you're aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her kid in the checkout line. Maybe she's not usually like this. Maybe she's been up three straight nights holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer. Or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk at the motor vehicle department, who just yesterday helped your spouse resolve a horrific, infuriating, red-tape problem through some small act of bureaucratic kindness. Of course, none of this is likely, but it's also not impossible. It just depends what you what [sic] to consider. If you're automatically sure that you know what reality is, and you are operating on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won't consider possibilities that aren't annoying and miserable. But if you really learn how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.

Not that that mystical stuff is necessarily true. The only thing that's capital-T True is that you get to decide how you're gonna try to see it.

Wow. It's tough to follow that act. Whose ready for The Links ...

Lindsey Pollack Has: Free Stuff! You can score a free copy of Lindsey's new book by signing up for a special Wall Street Journal Graduate Subscription. The perfect gift for the unemployed graduate with time on their hands to do nothing but read.

The Wall Street Journal Profiles: Bartending as a career. Apparently, with the weak economy people are hitting up bartending school. Hey, sounds like a solid career to me, good economy or bad economy. After all, where is the first place you go to celebrate? Or, conversely, where is the first place to go to commiserate? I rest my case.

Careers That Don't Suck Offers: An inspired idea: forget payment as compensation, work for the reference letter. "No, I’m not advocating working for free. With Kyle, only the estimate is free. Kyle’s inspired idea is that he is willing to work for less than he might be paid in a better market, to take a job that he might not consider in a better market, all with the goal of setting himself up for success when the market improves."

"David Foster Wallace" photo courtesy Steve Rhodes via Flickr Creative Commons