And yet / I had it all, / and I was lonelier / than I had ever been. // And it wasn't until / the boy / with the surfer hair / invited me / to his birthday party / after hours offset / away from work / that everything changed. // He wasn't just inviting me / to his birthday party, / he was inviting me / to his life party, / to his community, / and I finally felt at home, / and I made / some of the best friends / that I still have / to this day. // It in retrospect, / I know / it wasn't the role / I was looking for. / It wasn't / a paycheck / or / a titular character. // I, / what I / really needed / was friendship. // So I / want to stress / to you, / build your tribe. // They will / keep you alive. // I'm also / pretty / sure / that's what / Beyonce would say. // Speaking / of pillars / of an American entertainment, / uh, / it is now / the portion / of the morning / where I remind / everyone / that life / is / 50 shades / of gray. // I have to assume / I'm the first speaker / in an/ academic institution / that has referenced the book / 50 shades of gray. // But / we have already established / that I / dropped out of college. // I have no right / to be here. // So / this is / where we arrived. // I don't know / what you want me to do. // In my, / in my life, / there was only / one concept / that I have determined. // It's that / everything / is gray. // Every person, / every question, / every tragedy, / even every / victory, / they all / have nuance. // Pay attention / to the nuance. // You / all in this room, / I feel like / know that better / than anyone. // You know it / in your bones / because / you've devoted your time / to building stories, / building people. // It's what / you do. // You are / people architects. // You read a script, / and you construct / a walking, / breathing human / from the ground up. // When we create / characters, we are encouraged / to make them / three-dimensional, / right? // And acting / two-dimensional characters / they are / at the least / boring / and at the most extreme / irresponsible. // We're told to embrace / complicated characters. // We are taught / that you can't accurately / play a villain / until you find / one thing / about him / that you love. //