Thornton closed her Tuskegee address by channeling her father's voice one final time. Donald Thornton had a vivid way of explaining persistence to his daughters: 'If the front door is closed to you, go around to the back door. If that is closed, go to the side of the house and see if they left a window open. If that is closed, jump up on the roof.' This relentless philosophy had carried the Thornton family from poverty to prosperity in a single generation. Thornton told the graduates that their diplomas from Tuskegee were not rewards but starting lines — that commencement literally means beginning. The only true obstacle, she insisted, is the one you place in your own path by giving up.