Ferrell told the USC graduates about the years after college when he moved back home to Irvine, California — 'Yes, Irvine always gets that response' — and spent three and a half years taking classes at the Groundlings comedy theater, performing around Los Angeles, and eating spaghetti topped with mustard with only $20 in his checking account. He admitted he was afraid then, was still afraid now, was afraid to write this very speech. But the fear that truly terrified him was not failure — it was the possibility of never having tried. That distinction, between the fear of falling and the fear of never jumping, carried him through years of uncertainty until Saturday Night Live hired him in 1995.