Arizona State University may not have granted commencement speaker Barack Obama the customary honorary degree, but the president didn’t let that controversy dampen his spirits. On the contrary, Mr. Obama used the controversy — which stemmed from officials saying "his body of work is yet to come" — to crack a few jokes.

Said the president, "I come here not to dispute the suggestion that I haven’t achieved enough in my life. First of all, Michelle concurs with that assessment. She has a long list of things I have not yet done waiting for me when I get home." Joking aside, Obama went on to explain that one’s work is never truly done, The New York Times reports:

I come to embrace the notion that I haven’t done enough in my life. I heartily concur. I come to confirm that one’s title, even a title like president of the United States, says very little about how well one’s life has been led — and that no matter how much you’ve done, or how successful you’ve been, there’s always more to do, always more to learn and always more to achieve.

Students should look at the future as an opportunity to serve their communities and the nation as a whole, urged the president, insisting that a "body of work" is about "the daily labor, the many individual acts, the choices large and small that add up over time, over a lifetime to a lasting legacy." He also said that the States need to undergo a "fundamental change of perspective and attitude" to ensure we survive — and thrive from — the financial crisis.

Here’s part one of the president’s speech: