Foster built her entire Penn address toward this deceptively simple conclusion. She had spoken about the moral weight of Penn's Latin motto — 'Laws without morals are useless' — and added her own corollary: 'Morals without commitment are empty.' She described the Penn education as a 'two-by-four' that could be used to build a building or hit someone over the head. Then came this final charge: that the privilege of education is the privilege of creating meaning, and that meaning comes not from trying to be someone else but from becoming more fully yourself. Foster had lived this principle — choosing intellectually demanding roles, directing films that defied commercial convention, and guarding her private identity in an industry that demanded constant performance. Her closing quote, fittingly, was from Eminem: 'This opportunity comes once in a lifetime.'