It's graduation season, the time of year when politicians, artists, and other leaders impart advice, and sometimes humor, on the latest crop of young adults eager to take on the world.

Here are some of the highlights.

I would like to start here today by addressing the parents of the class of 2019.

And to you, I would like to say, I hear you.

Don't worry.

I have already had the T-shirts made up.

"My kid just graduated from Brown, and all I got was the dude from "The Office'"?

Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don't, everyone.

Cooks know how to use copper bowls to control egg proteins, and that's cool.

Respect that knowledge and learn from others.

It will bring out the best in them, and it will bring out the best in you.

Today, you take the controls.

You're going to push it up and chart your course across the sky.

Keep the wings level and true, because your country is sending you on a vital mission.

There is no moment when you're just supposed to be happy.

While you wait for those moments, while you wait for the perfect job, the MCAT score, the engagement ring, your life is happening.

And isn't it enough?

Happiness is your own responsibility, so attack it.

Steer your ship into the choppy seas.

Look for the rough spots, the problems that seem too big, the complexities that other people are content to work around.

It's in those places that you will find your purpose.

Life is going to give you a bad turn.

It's a test.

It's just a test.

And look at all the tests you passed just to get here.

When you listen as fiercely as you want to be heard, when you respect the idea that you are sharing the Earth with other humans, and when you lead with your nice foot forward, you will win, every time.

You are living witnesses to one of the most important lessons in life.

It is not whether you get knocked down.

It's whether you get back up and keep going.

Maybe someone will tell you, like someone told me, that you're not confident enough to be a reporter.

Maybe someone will call your hair wacky, like someone told me in a newsroom.

Maybe someone will question your career choices or who you choose to love or where you choose to live.

But I say, press forward.

Lean all the way in.

Take chances.

Fail big and take chances again.

And, remember, before you do something special, just do something.

You will volunteer.

You will vote.

You will shout out.

You will help.

You will lend a hand.

You will offer your talent and your kindness however you can, and you will radically transform whatever moment you're in, which leads to bigger moments.

And most important of all, whatever it takes, never, ever forget to call your mother.

And I do mean call, don't text.

Texts don't count.

I place my faith in the highest possible intentions in all things these days, in raising my kid, in choosing my projects, recording music, in making speeches that I suspect will be forgotten.

I hope you will do the same.

We have so much work to do, class of 2019.

Thank you so much.