Julia Keller, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and novelist, opened her commencement address by quoting from Willa Cather's novel 'The Song of the Lark.' In the story, when someone asks what will become of a young girl with dreams of becoming an opera singer, her teacher replies: 'That will depend upon the kind of ideas she lives with.' Keller seized on this as the most profound insight she could offer graduates. It wasn't external events — love affairs, career breaks, lucky chances — that would determine their futures, but the quality of the ideas they chose to carry with them. Their ideas were their 'compass, GPS navigational system, Mapquest instructions.' She described herself as someone who was 'raised by a library,' whose life's turning points were defined not by events or people but by ideas encountered through reading. Books were her 'Lewis and Clark,' exploring the world ahead of her and blazing trails — and ultimately helping her discover 'what was in here — in my own heart and mind.'