Quoting Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate, Greenwald underscored the existential importance of memory. She argued that remembering is not merely a cognitive act but a fundamental part of what makes us human. To forget our history—both its triumphs and its horrors—is to lose our identity as individuals and as a civilization. Greenwald connected this idea to the mission of the 9/11 memorial, explaining that the act of preserving memory serves as a bulwark against the forces of denial, indifference, and repetition. She urged graduates to cultivate the discipline of remembrance in their own lives, not as an exercise in nostalgia but as a moral practice that grounds us in shared humanity.