Read Harrison Ford’s ASU commencement speech

A Hollywood legend was in town on Monday.

Actor Harrison Ford was the speaker at the ASU undergraduate commencement ceremony, held on May 11 at Mountain America Stadium.

He also received an honorary Doctor of Arts and Humane Letters, but not for his acting. Rather, the “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” icon was recognized for his work in conservation. Ford joined Conservation International’s Board of Directors in 1991 and is currently the organization’s longest-serving board member.

As stated in the speech announcement, “His work aligns with ASU’s charter commitment to assume responsibility for the economic, social, cultural, and overall health of the communities it serves.”

Here is the full transcription of Harrison Ford’s speech to the ASU graduates:

Thank you, President Crow. Thank you very much. Thank you, President Crow, for the kind, gracious introduction and for the privilege to address all of you here today.

You’re here because you have accomplished something significant. You understood the opportunity before you. You took advantage of all this world-class university had to offer. You made wise choices, followed through with the work. I celebrate your commitment. The combined success of all of you, the potential of your entire generation. That is what gives me hope for the future.

I didn’t give much thought to the future, to my future. When I was in college, I did not make good choices. I didn’t have the perspective, the maturity. I served only myself. I was squandering my life in riotous living.

By my junior year, I was in real trouble, grade-point-wise, and looking for an easy A. I took a course the catalog called Drama: The Study of Plays. We’d be responsible for putting on plays for the college, but I didn’t give that part much thought. I thought I’d work in the box office or build sets.

My classmates were people I had previously discounted as geeks and misfits. But I soon realized I was a geek and a misfit. I had found my fit. These were my people. Turns out I didn’t work in the box office. Instead, I had major parts in five or six plays that we put on that year. I began to find myself on stage pretending to be someone else. I had always seen myself as shy, but hiding in character and costume and makeup, I had a freedom, a bravery I had never felt before, and I got an A. I was, I realized, present for possibly the very first time in my life. My passion had led me to community.

The head of the theater department had become a mentor to me. He invited me to do plays in a summer theater season he directed. Sure. And then come to California to join him again at a more professional theater. Wow. Which led to an interview at Columbia Pictures, which eventually would lead to my theatrical career.

But acting was not yet paying the bills. I was supporting my growing family with carpentry jobs. Another way to put food on the table. I loved making things. This went on for about … Well, I just skipped a line. Back up for me, if you would, please. And I only took acting jobs when the parts challenged me. This went on for about 15 years, during which I did a lot of carpentry and only four or five acting jobs, but they were more ambitious, good projects. And then it all added up and I got “Star Wars.”

The load lightened. I had freedom, opportunity, but something was still missing. Passion and purpose are not the same thing. Passion brings you joy. Purpose brings you meaning. Passion gets you out of bed in the morning, but purpose allows you to sleep at night. And I hadn’t found purpose higher than my job yet. That changed in the late ’80s. I was living in Wyoming and I was impressed by a group of people that I met there who had recently formed a not-profit called Conservation International. They had inspired leadership in their founder, Peter Seligman, who became a trusted friend. Their message was simple. Nature doesn’t need people. People need nature to survive.

A healthy natural world provides free services, free services to mankind that we cannot provide for ourselves. Oxygen in the air we breathe, pollinators for our crops, fresh water and carbon capture from our forest, wetlands and ocean. Medicines, present and future, from the rainforest. They had their heads in the sky and their feet in the mud and they encouraged me to join them. There it was. Purpose. A place to put my passion for storytelling to work. I didn’t want to be a poster boy for the cause. I wanted to be part of the work, so I was invited to join the board some 35 years ago, and that’s why I stand here now before you: to represent for nature, the source of life itself.

Humanity is a part of nature, not above it. We have an essential mandate to protect 30% of the world’s land and sea by 2030, to prevent the mass extinction, the slow the warming of our planet. Still, despite new science, new policies, we are still losing nature to profiteering, corruption, conflict — including land that is already protected on paper. These efforts matter, but they’re not enough. We need cultural change. We need to extend social justice. We need to respect and elevate the Indigenous people that are being marginalized and, in many cases, killed in cold blood. These communities have long understood that the trees, the mountain, water, soil are not commodities. They are relatives to be cherished for following generations to embrace and protect.

We can all play a role by embracing that wisdom in our day-to-day lives, by loving the planet, by honoring nature’s authority, her generosity, the bounty she affords us, the justice of her example, because the world you’re stepping into, the world my generation left you, is a real mess. Saving nature isn’t our only job. There are opportunities to be embraced in society and business, in the kind of lives we live. So find a place for yourself. Whatever talent or ambition you have, find some way to put it to work. Build something that didn’t exist yesterday. Stand up for someone who can’t stand up for themselves. Bring people together who weren’t talking before. That’s leadership. That’s what moves the needle. Your generation has far more power than you may realize. And if you harness that power, if you find your leadership, your issues, your voice, the world will not be able to ignore you.

You will have to be accommodated. Believe me, I know that’s true. Don’t wait. When opportunity presents, recognize it. This is your time. Own it. Enjoy every second of it because what could be worse than getting to the end of your life and realizing that you haven’t fully lived it?

Congratulations. Go change the world.