Sarah Heidt, a professor of English at Kenyon College, delivered the Baccalaureate address at her own institution in 2010, a milestone year in which she also received tenure. She pushed back against the common advice 'Don't take yourself so seriously,' arguing instead for a spacious and joyful seriousness about life. Now is always the only time you can do anything, she told the graduates. This is true within any individual moment, where what you do expresses who you are, and it is true within the span of your life, where what you do stems from what you have done and grows toward what you will do. There is both gravity and relief, she said, in not seeking to escape who you are but instead committing to use the tools and limits of your being as best you can.