Harvard 2008 Commencement Speech by J.K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

Dear J.K. Rowling,

I'm a huge fan of your Harry Potter series. Ever since Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, I looked forward to subsequent releases with such anticipation! As soon as I laid my hands on each sequel, I would read with such ferocity, sometimes even through the night - I just couldn't go to sleep without knowing if Harry would get together with Cho Chang (thankfully not!), or whether Ron will stop being a git (it's in his DNA to be one), or whether the horcruxes will be destroyed (hooray!). But why did Hedwig have to die!? And you toyed with my feelings by making me hate Snape, who eventually turned out to be a hero!

So there have been fiends who attempt to sue you for plagiarism. They want to ride on the gravy train. So there have been religious nuts who decry the imaginary use of witchcraft and wizardry in your books. They organize campaigns against you, they burn your books, they chant silly slogans. Don't mind those douche bags who revel in dogma and wallow in close-mindedness. You cannot explain to all the fools in the world. After all, your books have sold billions of copies the world over, been translated into over 40 languages, and spawned the wildly popular Harry Potter franchise.  Incidentally, you are also the first billionaire writer in the world.

I became an even bigger fan after watching your speech, so I've copied down some of the awesome lessons you've shared. Now that I stand on the cusp of graduation, these points are especially poignant for me. Don't mind me while I gape and stare and wonder!

On Taking Personal Responsibility

I do not blame my parents for their point of view. There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction. The moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.

What is more, I cannot criticise my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty. They had been poor themselves, and I have since been poor. And I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience. Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression. It means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty on your own efforts is something on which to pride yourself. But poverty itself is romanticized only by fools.

On Failure and Courage 
Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure. But the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it.

Failure meant a stripping away of the inessentials. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena where I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter, and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case, you’ve failed by default.

You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.  Such knowledge, is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it is worth more than any qualification I’ve ever earned. 

On the Paper Chase 
So given a time turner, I would tell me 21 year old self, that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a checklist of acquisitions or achievements. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older, who confuse the two.