Greitens bookended his Tufts commencement address with a reference to the 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books he loved as a child. He opened by quoting from 'Journey Under the Sea': 'Fear and excitement are now your companions' — a line he compared to the feeling of college graduation. He closed with this honest promise that chose authenticity over false comfort. Rather than telling graduates their lives would be easy or successful, he acknowledged difficulty while reframing it as adventure. The word 'chosen' was key — Greitens had spent the entire speech arguing that the choice to serve others, to find purpose beyond oneself, was what transformed hardship into meaning. Coming from someone who had survived Hell Week, combat in Iraq, and a suicide truck bomb, the promise of a 'meaningful adventure' carried the weight of lived experience.