Near the end of his speech, Sorkin shifted from his characteristic wit to genuine vulnerability, sharing that he lost a decade of his life to cocaine addiction. He told graduates bluntly: 'You know how I got addicted to cocaine? I tried it.' After describing his eleven years of sobriety — during which he wrote three TV series, three movies, a Broadway play, and won an Academy Award — he delivered this closing message about resilience. He framed the entire speech around the theatrical metaphor of rehearsal being over: 'You're going out there now. You're gonna do this thing. How you live matters.'