President Obama ended his speech on Friday with a message of hope for those concerned about the country's current path: "We have been through much darker times than these."

Somehow, Obama said, "each generation of Americans carried us through to the other side."

They did that "not by sitting around and waiting for something to happen, not by leaving it to others to do something, but by leading that movement for change themselves," he said.

"And if you do that, if you get involved and you get engaged and you knock on some doors and you talk with your friends and you argue with your family members and you change some minds and you vote, something powerful happens. Change happens. Hope happens."

He told the assembled students that taking America "in the direction of fairness and justice and equality and opportunity" could "be the legacy of your generation."

"You can be the generation that at a critical moment stood up and reminded us just how precious this experiment in democracy really is, just how powerful it can be when we fight for it, when we believe in it."

He ended the speech, which went just over an hour, by telling them, "I believe in you," and promising he would "be right there with you every step of the way."

In other words, the former president is no longer going to shy away from speaking out.