Hillary Clinton Returned To Her Alma Mater To Deliver A Powerful Commencement Address

Hillary Clinton returned to her alma mater on Friday and delivered a commencement address to the class of 2017, just like she did when she graduated in 1969.

As the College Government president, she was the first student to ever speak during commencement day at Wellesley College, the liberal women's college in Massachusetts. In her 1969 speech, she said politics were "the art of making what appears to be impossible, possible." Now, 48 years later, she stood in front of the 2017 graduating class with a message of defiance, strength, and most importantly, hope.

Ahead we rounded up the highlights of her speech.

Inevitably, Clinton referenced her defeat at the 2016 presidential election early in her speech. After all, she's the only woman to ever have come this close to breaking the so-called glass ceiling by becoming the first female president.

But now, more than six months after the fact, she has a sense of humor about it and said that she's doing fine. She said, "You may have heard that things didn't go exactly as I planned. But you know what, I'm doing okay."

What's helped her sounds like some pretty good self care: Spending time with her family, specifically her grandchildren, and taking long walks in the woods. Clinton also joked that "Chardonnay helped a little too."

However, she also highlighted what really was the source of her strength after her unexpected and crushing defeat against President Trump.

"What gave me hope and joy after the election was meeting so many young people that told me my defeat had not defeated them," she said.

Without mentioning her opponent by name a single time, Clinton went after President Trump's policies and attack on truth and facts.

"You're graduating in a time where's a full-fledged attack on truth and reason," she told the graduating class.

She added that when people in power distort reality and go after those who question them, "it can mark the beginning of the end of a free society, and that's not hyperbole." Case in point: Authoritarian regimes that are still standing all over the world.

Clinton also slammed Trump's proposed federal budget, calling it "an attack of unimaginable cruelty on the most vulnerable among us — the youngest, the oldest, the poorest, and hard working people who need a little help to gain or hang on to a decent, middle-class life."

The budget, introduced earlier this week, proposes an increase in military spending, while slashing crushing government programs for low-income Americans, such as food stamps and student loans. It also attempts to defund Planned Parenthood.

However, she did encourage women to use what they have learned in school to make a difference in the world. She joked about her own 1969 graduating class being furious former President Richard Nixon got elected, adding her and her classmates were angry at "a man whose presidency would eventually end in disgrace with his impeachment for obstruction of justice."

"Don't let anyone tell you your voice doesn't matter," she told the young women.

She added, "Don't be afraid of your ambition, your dreams, or even your anger. Those are powerful forces, but harness them to make a difference in the world."

It's very on brand for Clinton to empower women. She did it with her classic 1994 Beijing speech where she said that "human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights." She did so in her speech at the Democratic National Convention. And she did it again in her concession speech, where she said "someday, someone" will shatter the glass ceiling.

Today, standing in front of a graduating class made of entirely of young women, she repeated this sentiment.

"[Young women] are valuable, powerful, and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world," she said. "Not only your future, but our future depends on you believing that."

Watch the speech below.