Author’s note: I was invited to give some remarks for the 2026 graduating class of US Digital Corp Fellows, these are the remarks I prepared.

Hi y’all. Congratulations on finishing your rotation through the Digital Corp! The last few years have surely been a wild ride—possibly wilder than normal. And that’s what I want to talk about: to take care of yourselves in unprecedented times.

I’ve spent most of the last 20 years—nearly my entire career working in social- and civic-good spaces. In that time I have almost always given far more what was sustainable for me with the idea that I was building towards a better future and it would always be worth it. My greatest hope for you all is to not make that mistake. While we often celebrate the effort and accomplishments of heroes, heroic work is often necessary because of the failures of our institutions and social infrastructure.

Giving 110% and burning yourself out for a hopefully sustainable future doesn’t work. Sacrifice normalizes sacrifice, and sustained sacrifice becomes normalized injustice. Burning more than you can sustain creates a cycle of debt that is often impossible to escape, like orbiting into the event horizon of a black hole.

And that’s because capitalism is a hungry ghost. It will take everything you can give and still be unsatisfied. We chose this work because we’ve been called to make the world a better place, and that is generational work. So we need you to take care of yourself, too, because burning yourself out doesn’t make the world better.

There is meaningful work to do everywhere. There are brilliant, clever colleagues everywhere. There are places that care about work-life balance everywhere. The trick is to finding a combination of all three. Because making sacrifices to get something across the finish line might be a the short term reality, but it should not be the norm. It can’t be. We create the better world by finding and working with the people who are making sustainable and caring spaces real today.

Because this work isn’t a sprint, it’s not even a marathon, it’s a relay race, and we need you for the long haul. You got this. I’m so excited to see what y’all do next. Even if it’s take a nap.