My daughter, Anna, graduated yesterday from UC Boulder with a degree in Anthropologie. It was an absolutely perfect day. The graduation took place in the stadium and was truely magnificent with big TV screens showing closeups of all the graduates as they marched in, making wonderful happy gestures and silly faces. Julie Andrews was the commencement speaker, and so much more wonderful than I could have ever imagined. You can watch the live speech online, but below are some of her main important points.  

 --Be an ambassador for 'the kind of world you want to live in'--

"Be a part of all that is decent and be an ambassador for the kind of world that you want to live in," she said.

To help make her point that graduates should "go out and learn something" when faced with adversity, Andrews shared a personal anecdote about a botched throat operation that caused her to lose her singing voice.

At the time, she was writing a children's book with her daughter.

"I was bemoaning my fate and she said, 'Mom, you've simply found a new way of using your voice,'" Andrews recalled. "Suddenly, the weight of sadness fell from my shoulders and I embraced this new learning experience wholeheartedly."

Since then, Andrews and her daughter have together written 30 children's books.

Andrews also made an endearing pitch for the arts during her speech.

"Wherever your path takes you, make the arts a meaningful part of your life in some way. Honestly, they are food for the soul. They revitalize us. They transport us. Inspires us. Shape us. Humble us. They connect us worldwide in ways that nothing else can."