This video, though a couple years old, came to me today: J.K. Rowling giving a commencement speech at Harvard, on having “failed on an epic scale” within 7 years of graduating from University. It is funny, touching, and inspiring. It will almost make you feel good about those rejection slips to hear her say, “Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I built my life.”
Or “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all.”
One of the things I loved about this is that she closes with the importance of friendships:
“The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life. They are my children’s godparents, the people to whom I’ve been able to turn in times of trouble, people who have been kind enough not to sue me when I took their names for Death Eaters. At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister. So today, I wish you nothing better than similar friendships.”
Thanks to my dear friend Harriet Scott Chessman for sharing the link. Sadly, I have no incriminating photographs of Harriet, having not met her until we were older and I, at least, was infinitely wiser. (One imagines Harriet has always been wise, and certainly remains wiser than I despite my progress.)
My friends from Michigan Law School, though … have I mentioned I’m writing a novel about four UMLaw grads (who, this being fiction, are certainly not based on anyone in running clothes on this page)? You all won’t be any more litigious than J.K.’s pals, will you? – Meg
