This is part of the speech I gave at the graduation at Northwestern University a few weeks ago. I was really fortunate to study theater at Northwestern and being asked to give the speech was a huge honor and very meaningful to me. (The “Shanley” referenced in the speech is a small black boxstyle theater there where the students put on shows). This is not something I ever planned on posting publicly it was written very specifically for the graduates of the School of Communication there, where I graduated 25 years ago and where many of the students are seeking out careers in the arts and the media. And this video is an eternity by social media standards so I don’t really expect a lot of people to watch it. But the people who’ve seen it or found it online seem to be getting something good out of it so, for what it’s worth, I thought I’d post it here too, for anyone who might find it helpful. This is for all the recent graduates out there, at Northwestern and everywhere else (and maybe also for those of us middle aged folks trying to figure out our next chapter too). Huge congrats to all the graduates and thanks again to my friends at Northwestern for having me.