Suzan-Lori Parks's seventh suggestion to the Mount Holyoke Class of 2001 was deceptively simple: 'Get out of your way.' The double meaning of 'tripping' — both stumbling and sabotaging — captured the two distinct forms of self-defeat she was warning against. Parks spoke from the authority of someone who had navigated an unconventional path. Her journey to becoming one of America's most important playwrights began when her high school English teacher told her she didn't have the talent for English — advice that was simultaneously the worst and the best she ever received, because it forced her to think for herself. That story, which opened the speech, made this later suggestion resonate: the obstacles in our path are often of our own making.