2026 Commencement
Kristin Davis
I am so thrilled to be here at CU Boulder to celebrate the graduating class of 2026!
Boulder is a very special place to me. I was born at Boulder Community Hospital and my mother graduated from CU in 1967. We lived over on Spruce Street. So a very special thank you to the student led committee who chose me to come speak to you today, it has been very meaningful to be back in Boulder.
It is a huge honor to be here speaking to you today, one that frankly I was a bit confused by….
So much so that I felt the need to call my agent and ask if perhaps there had been some kind of mistake. After they reassured me that there had not been a huge error, I started to reflect on WHY I had been chosen to speak to you today.And what I might say to you. In this exploration I asked myself what message or experience could I bring to you - that is unique to me? What would have been helpful for me to hear on the day that I graduated from college?
And the answer is DO NOT SET LIMITations ON WHAT YOU ENVISION FOR YOURSELF.
But first you need to prepare……
I found my love for acting at 10 years old in the community theater in my town. I obsessively studied acting for the next 12 years, getting a BFA degree in acting and entering the fully insane world of the “entertainment industry” at 22. But I continued studying for the next 8 years, right up until I was working so much that there wasn’t time to go to acting class. So that is my first lesson, PREPARATION is key. And the great news is that you’ve done that!
We are here today to celebrate all of the sacrifices you and your family have made to get you to this point in life. And it hasn’t been easy I‘m sure! But you did it! Now the next adventure begins. Now that your intense preparation is complete, what I believe you need are two very important things.
1-a vision for what your life will be like and
2- deep faith in yourself to achieve that vision.
I want you to allow your deepest self to create a vision of what your life will look like. Not just your work but every aspect of the life you dream of having. And I‘m not talking about the things you might own. I’m talking about adventure, love, creativity, friendship, joy, and purpose. Then you need to invest emotionally in this inner vision.
Next- when you go out into the world and the doors start to open, and they will open, walk through them. This is when faith and investment will come into play. Some of the doors may look different than you imagined. You will need to rely on your instinct to know if what is behind that door is what is right for you. And some of the doors will inevitably lead to situations that will test you.
This is what happened to me with Sex and the City. I had been hired for a series regular role on Melrose Place. My first big job. After 8 years of auditioning.I was thrilled! It was a huge show at the time and I was excited to go to work everyday. But after a year they let me go and killed my character off. I was pretty upset. But honestly not as devastated as I would have expected. In my gut , I felt there was more for me. After another year of auditioning I was hired to be a series regular on a very unusual pilot called Sex and the City.
This was by far the most exciting project I had ever read, a show with FOUR leading women characters walking around new your city talking about sex and relationships. I was beyond thrilled to be part of something so entirely different from anything I‘d ever seen on tv before. But during the filming of the pilot a producer knocked on my trailer door and handed me a 2 page contract that she wanted me to sign. I was confused because I had already signed a book-length contract that my lawyer had negotiated for me before we started work. The new contract said that Charlotte would only be a “recurring” character instead of a series regular and my paycheck would be one seventh of what we had previously negotiated. I called my lawyer back in LA in a FULL PANIC. He told me not to sign the new contract and to tell the producers that I “forgot” to bring the new contract back to work. Well this was a lot of acting for me to do until the pilot was done. But I did it. And I did it because I had faith in myself. I had faith that even though Charlotte had a different point of view than the other characters, that the show needed her voice.I had faith that I had something to offer to the show. Something unique that only I could contribute. It was a risk.I could easily have gotten fired after the pilot wrapped. But when the producers edited the footage together, thank goodness they saw that Charlotte was necessary.
This ONE time that I bet on myself completely changed the course of my life.
The success of the show opened doors for me around the world and allowed me to do things I had not even dreamed of. Such as standing here in front of you today. So what might this mean for all of you? You are entering the so-called adult world at an unprecedented time. There are no clear paths to success in our current chaotic world. There is not even a set definition of success. I believe that all of you are uniquely suited to this moment in time.You ALL have gifts to help us solve the many issues we are facing in our world.I believe that we are witnessing a seismic shift in our institutions and systems.This can be scary, but also exciting. Your generation questions everything, and that is exactly the energy we need in our world. You are flexible thinkers, you are emotionally intelligent. You understand that you need to protect your mental health.You know how to express yourselves. And most importantly you understand that we are all connected.
One of the doors that opened for me with the global success of the show was that I was able to pursue my interests in philanthropy. Since 2014 I’ve been working with the UN High Commission for Refugees. And this work has been one of the most the rewarding experiences of my life. I am inspired every single time I visit a refugee camp by the incredible resilience of the human spirit. People who have been forced to flee their homes with nothing are able to find joy and connection and help each other to reinvent their lives and move forward. They remind me of what we are all capable of.
So look around you.Take this moment in. You have formed powerful bonds through your experience here at this beautiful university at the feet of the Rocky Mountains. You have worked hard. I’m pretty sure you have played hard too! Know that you are ready for the next chapter. Dig deep to find the vision of what you want for your own life and for others. Have the faith in yourself to pursue that vision.
I’m going to share one of my favorite quotes with you. Henry David Thoreau said “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours”
I believe in all of you. I believe in your unique gifts.The world desperately needs your contributions and I can’t wait to see what you will create. Please carry the joy of your accomplishments forward to the adventure that awaits.
Congratulations class of 2026!!!!