DiDonato's final truth was her most passionate and urgent. After telling Juilliard graduates they would never 'make it,' that the work would never end, and that it wasn't about them, she built to this crescendo: the world desperately needs exactly what they have to offer. She articulated the need with escalating intensity: the world needs artists 'to help us understand that which is bigger than ourselves, so that we can stop feeling so small, so isolated, so helpless.' It needs them to remind us of 'unbridled, unfiltered, childlike exuberance' so we remember 'to laugh, to play, to fly.' It needs them to teach empathy 'by taking us deep into the hearts of those who are, God forbid, different than us.' Coming from someone who had been told she possessed 'not much talent,' who had failed to secure management for years, who had endured far more rejections than acceptances, this wasn't empty encouragement. It was testimony from someone who had lived through the doubt and emerged to witness firsthand how art transforms lives — from a teased fifth-grader finding healing in an opera about forgiveness to audiences around the world finding connection through music.