Oren spoke from deeply personal experience. As a kid in suburban New Jersey watching Israeli paratroopers dance at the Western Wall after the 1967 Six-Day War, he vowed to become one of those dancing paratroopers. Years later, visiting Washington with his youth group and meeting Israel's ambassador, he silently vowed to hold that position himself someday. Both dreams came true — but he learned that being a paratrooper was about plunging from a plane fast enough to break both your legs and making split-second decisions of profound moral consequence. And serving as ambassador meant grappling with issues affecting millions of lives while facing constant criticism. The greatest challenge, he told the Brandeis graduates, isn't having the courage to dream — it's accepting the immense responsibilities that arrive once your dreams become real.