Bradley Whitford’s commencement speech at Wisconsin says exactly what kids graduating from college, and young adults graduating from first jobs to second ones, from apartments to mortgages, from pets to children, from any one flat place in their lives to another, need to hear.

Excerpt:

Listen. It is the most difficult thing an actor can do and it is the most riveting. You can’t afford to spend your life like a bad actor stumbling through a predetermined performance that is oblivious to the world around you. We can’t afford it either. Listening isn’t passive. It is an act of liberation that will connect you to the world with compassion and be your best guide as you navigate the choppy waters of love, work and citizenship.

Go. Read it all.