Jodie Foster, the two-time Academy Award-winning actress and filmmaker, delivered the commencement address at the University of Pennsylvania in 2006. A Yale graduate herself, Foster spoke with the candid authority of someone who had navigated fame, art, and identity in the public eye since childhood. Foster described life after graduation as a process of stuffing experiences — treasure and trash, pain and pleasure — into a 'big bag of experience.' Some things work out, some don't, and you stuff them all in the bag. Then one day you look behind you and a pattern emerges; you look ahead and the path makes sense. This moment of recognition — realizing that your path was forming even when you felt lost — was, she argued, one of the most beautiful experiences in life.