And you will definitely have your share of setbacks. Count on it. Your best laid plans will be consumed by obstacles. Your excellence ideas will be peppered with flaws. You will be confronted with financial strains as your loans become due and salaries fall short of both expectations and expenses. You will make mistakes that will shatter your confidence. You will make compromises that will test your convictions. You will find that there is rarely a clear and direct path to any of your visions. And you will find that you'll have to readjust again and again and again. And there may be times when you wonder whether it's all worth it. And there may be moments when you just want to quit.

But in those moments, those inevitable moments, I urge you to think about this day. Look around you. Look around you. There are thousands of hardworking people who have helped you get to this point, people who are celebrating with you today, who are praying for you every single day,and others who couldn't be here, for whatever reason. I want you to think of the people who sacrificed for you—you know that—family members who worked a third job to get you through, who took on the extra shifts to get you through, who put off doing something important for themselves to get you to this day.