The Nine Most Inspirational Quotes From 2015 Commencement Speeches

Graduation is an exciting time. Graduation speeches, on the other hand — often the last hour between you and officially, finally, being 100% done with school — can be a little boring, even if they do tell you that you’re a special snowflake by quoting Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

And that’s a shame, since the real world is tricky, and a commencement speech is the perfect time to arm a new generation with legitimately helpful advice. (Or, you know, distract them from the impending suckiness of True Adulthood.)

We checked out the crop of speeches this year, from writers, politicians, and the lady who plays Flo on those Progressive Insurance commercials, and pulled out the ones that had something wise to say. Here are the nine most kick-ass pieces of advice we learned at graduations this year.