Courage

Your experience facing and overcoming adversity is actually one of your biggest advantages.

They seem to view our diversity as a threat to be contained rather than as a resource to be tapped. They tell us to be afraid of those who are different, to be suspicious of those with whom we disagree.

Remember always what Nelson Mandela said: 'All the hardest jobs seem impossible until they are done.'

If you are lucky, you will never lose the sensation of terror that precedes discovery, nor the delight that follows.

You are about to enter the most uncertain and thrilling period of your lives. The stories you are about to live are the ones you will be telling your children and grandchildren and therapists.

Graduates, you're on your own. Figure it out. I believe in you. Believe in yourselves! The world is starving for new leadership, new ideas.

If you calm down, you will know what your instincts are telling you and you'll know which way, right or wrong, that you must proceed.

Just please be honest with yourself about what you think and how you feel about all of that, what you like and dislike, what angers you or scares you or saddens you or inspires you, or delights you. Those feelings are called your instincts, and you ignore them at your own peril.

Don't be so focused in your plans that you are unwilling to consider the unexpected. The most exciting parts of your life aren't even on your radar screen.

Knowing who you are is the compass that will help guide you to unexpected opportunity or when a setback blows your way. Knowing who you are is the centerboard that will help steady you when you're afraid you may capsize.

You have to be willing to fight for what you believe in. Washington is full of people who say no, and who are saying it in nastier and nastier ways. But knowing who you are will help you when it's time to fight.

Education is no equalizer — rather, it is the sleep that precedes the American Dream. So wake up. Lift your voices until you've patched every hole in a child's broken sky.