Jodi Kantor

Well, it was a crazy situation.

Remember, like, the chaos at Columbia?

So in the middle of it, I get an email from them saying, will you give the undergraduate commencement speech?

What?

And it's like an honor, but also kind of a bad offer, right?

And so my friends from college... We're going out of business.

So my college friends were like, don't do it.

Call in sick.

You're going to get booed.

And I was like, give me those kids for 15 minutes.

Because I was so upset as a reporter, as a mom, as a citizen, at seeing this place that stands for enlightenment and discussion just descend into total toxicity.

So I was like, OK, I'll do it.

Thank you.

I'm honored.

But I need to talk to the students, because I got to read this room very carefully.

So I get on a Zoom with the students and they ask me a great question.

They say, we chose you because of your career and we want to know how in this crazy environment are we supposed to find and start our life's work?

And I was like,

this is awesome because that is such a hard, it's like such a good question.

And I knew.