“If you’re trying to figure out what’s coming next, turn off everything you own that has an ‘off’ switch, and listen. Make up some plans and be willing to change them on a dime. Identify your heart’s truest desire and don’t change that for anything. Be proud of yourself for the work that you’ve done. Be grateful to the people who helped you do it. Write and let them know how you are. You are, every one of you, someone’s favorite unfolding story. We cannot wait to hear what happens next.”

–from novelist Ann Patchett’s Sarah Lawrence College commencement address.