Feminist icon Gloria Steinem delivered the commencement address at Tufts University in 1987, weaving together themes of social justice, gender equality, and the urgency of action. This line served as both a practical and philosophical exhortation — urging graduates not to defer their deepest aspirations to some imagined future when conditions would be more favorable. Steinem's point was characteristically direct: waiting for the right moment is itself a form of surrender. She had spent decades as an organizer and activist, and she knew that the most common regret people carry is not what they did, but what they failed to attempt. The equation of life with time, and time with everything, distilled a lifetime of activism into a single imperative.